Prison Times

At Transitions Clinic, which exclusively treats parolees, Dr. Shira Shavit checked Eric Johnson’s blood pressure. Photo Courtesy of The New York Times

City College Post-Prison Certificate program supplies re-entry program with workers

By Ivan Huang PRISON TIMES/ IVANH019.YAHOOCOM/ @IVANNSAYS

With incarceration rates increas-ing due to crimes that used to be considered minor offenses, people are in and out of prison more than ever. This leaves many people who come out of prison attached with the label of a ‘felon’, facing discrimination in all areas of society. These people are facing discrimina-tion when it comes to employment and housing; things that are vital to living in our society. City College’s Community Health Worker Certificate program offers the Post Prison Health worker certificate which helps people who have been formerly incarcerated “re-enter” into their society. “This particular program trains people who have history [being formerly incarcerated] and really use that personal experience to help others.” City College’s Community Health Worker program director, Alma Avila said. City College’s program works closely with the Transitions Clinic Program, a program that has been helping the formerly incarcerated since 2006. “Transitions clinic is a program that was looking at how to reduce cost of health care in the city of San Francisco,” Avila said. “One of the ways was to create a clinic specifically to work with people who have been formerly incarcerated so that they wouldn’t be utilizing the emergency services.” The Transitions Clinic Program has reached out to individuals who have been released from prison who endure chronic health

conditions, and provide them with transitional and primary health care and case management services. Majority of individuals released from prison have chronic medical and mental health problems, and they usually receive little to any assistance accessing community services because of their background. As a result, they tend to rely on the emergency department (ED) to manage these health problems when they are in serious condition and face an increased risk of death. “That’s how the clinic kind of got started, and it became such a great model that now it’s expanding to other states around the country,” Avila said. According to SF Gate, “The Transitions Clinic was founded in January 2006 by Dr. Emily Wang and Dr. Clemens Hong, who were working at UCSF-S.F. General Hospital as internal medi-cine residents.” “By partnering with Southeast Health Center, a local, city-funded clinic for low-income residents, the doctors got Transitions Clinic up and running; the clinic donated its facilities and the doctors volunteered their time one day a week. It has seen more than 200 patients since it opened, and it is widely heralded as a model for California cities (nearly 137,478 people were paroled in California in 2007).” City College’s Post Prison Health Worker Certificate program is only one of four organizations that is involved with the Transitions Clinic. “It’s a collaboration between the San Francisco department of public health, UCSF, and City College,” Avila said.

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Way-Pass Program delivers service to formerly incarcerated women

Education is the best alternative, with the many being released from jail, but with no support from the prisons, City College’s program urges the formerly incarcerated to go to school. The Way-Pass program, helps serve formerly incarcerated women transition from incarceration to education. The program started in 2006 when two students who were formerly incarcerated Paula Kent, and Mary Van Der Horst wanted to create a program that would help students that are in their specific situation. “Started by two ex-cons who were going to City College,” said Program Director Pearl Contreras. “They realized CCSF needed a program with women who were formerly incar-cerated.” Way-Pass member Sandra Johnson explained that when she left prison, the only support she was given was $200, which she then had to use for her bus ride out of prison and to buy clothes. “Coming out of prison is hard,” John-son said. “Especially when you don’t have any-

body. That is why I want to help other women. Woman is strength.” When Way-Pass was originally founded it was meant to provide women with school supplies and even things like diapers. By covering basic necessities, the program hoped to help members succeed in school. Van Der Horst wants to extend the Way-Pass program from what it is now, a col-lege support program, to a program for housing and business-creating. According to the the Links Center’s bio of the program, It serves as a bridge to women transitioning from incarceration to edu-cation. Serving as a bridge to women transitioning from incarceration to education, the services that Way-Pass provide include out-reach and support, case management, informal counseling, class planning and management, support groups and workhops, assistance with enrollment forms and registration, referrals to student supportive services at CCSF and com-munity based organizations. The program hosts several work-shops and support groups throughout the semester. “Miss Pearl” as her friends and col-leagues call her, had something in common with the people she was providing service to. She was formerly incarcerated herself.

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Vol. 1, Issue 1, May 12 Issue Jennifer Worley’s English 96/1A Final Project FREE

By Ivan Huang PRISON TIMES/ IVANH019.YAHOOCOM/ @IVANNSAYS

Each organization plays an important role to the Transitions Clinic, according to Avila. “We’re training the public health workers, the department of public health provides clinic space, and UCSF provides the doctors and nurses.” With City College’s certificate program working closely with the Transi-tions Clinic as partners, nearly guaran-tees students who are part of the program an opportunity to find employment. “Every year we have students that are hired by their internships,” Avila said. “All of our community health work-ers for example have been hired by the transitions clinic.

With City College’s accredita-tion being a major issue, the Transitions Clinic could not afford to lose such a big institution backing the program. “Well first of all these programs wouldn’t exist,” Avila said. “The training goes away, they don’t get the additional resources from the community health workers that they would because in this program you must complete an intern-ship.”Major consequences may loom for people who have post incarceration history if City College closes. “By closing we limit the options available for people who have post incar-ceration history,” Avila said. “We’ll leave a big hole into our community.”

According to http://www.innova-tions.ahrq.gov/content.aspx?id=3195, “More than 70 percent of the approxi-mately 700,000 people released from U.S. Federal and State prisons each year have chronic medical, substance abuse, and other mental health problems.” Few prison systems release individuals with medications, health insur-ance, or referrals to needed services, such as primary care. Most of the time, recently released prisoners are left to find these types of services themselves. Research shows that Individu-als recently released from prison use the ED more frequently and face higher risk of death than do members of the general population.

Continued from page 1: CCSF Post Prison Certificate Pro-gram supplies re-entry program with trained workers

Continued from page 1: Way-Pass Program delivers service to formerly incarcerated womenTransitions clinic logo image provided by facebook

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During a workshop on March 20, 2012, during the an-nouncement of plans to open a clinic to provide life-skills support for formerly incarcerated women, Contreras revealed the details of her past. Contreras gave an open-ing speech. She was formerly impris-oned herself and said that she is not proud of that. “What I am proud of is that I came out and I made a change in my life,” she said.“Coming out of prison is hard,” she said. “Especially when you don’t have anybody, that is why I want to help other women.” She emphasized the im-portance of education saying, “With-out me getting an education there is no way in the world that I would have made it. The mind is a bad thing to waste.” The program started out as a collaborative project with City College, under the auspices of the Health Science Department and the

Women’s Studies Department.“The program is funded by a foundation that is privately funded,” Contreras said. The program serves many women that are coming home from prisons, jails, and drug programs, and provide them with the tools that are needed for these individual’s the support needed to maintain educa-tion. In order to support the women who are in need of this program, Van Der Horst believes there is a bigger picture to what this program is doing.“We want to make our community strong and create a sustainable com-munity where we sustain each other,” Van Der Horst said. The hours this program operates is from Monday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. when school is in session or by ap-pointment. For more information on this program, please call 415-452-4889 or email waypass@gmail.com

Way-Pass program graphic provided by Facebook

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San Quentin prison receives two and half stars on Yelp

The largest prison in the United States, San Quentin State Prison has received 41 reviews and a rating of ‘two and a half’ on a local business and directory service and review site that is linked to various social networks. “The reviews come from a variety of individuals, some who have taken tours of the facility and some who claim to have spent time behind its bars. Overall, the site receives an average of 2.5 stars out of five,” said Eric Pfeiffer from Yahoo News.

Opening in July of 1852 which is the oldest prison in the state, the prison provides California’s only death row for male inmates. “The violence is high to low depend-ing on where your housed,” said Nick G., From South San Francisco, CA. With the prison holding many of the state’s most dangerous criminals including gang members, violent activity happens in only certain areas of where Nick G. stayed. “Mostly stabbings happen in [the] badgers’ reception where the level fours are on the first two tiers, Surrenos and Whiteboys on partially the second to third, then [Protective Custody] up the rest of the way.” Nick G. said. Rachel D., From Nashville, TN had a lesson learned about the gang involvement in which was taking place at the Prison. “We were told ahead of time not to wear certain colors, so as not to inflame any gang members of opposing colors. We were also advised that at any moment, alarms would sound if there was an emergency, and that the guards on duty will not hesitate to shoot. We

knew we were in a potentially deadly situation.” Rachel D. said. One former prisoner who was part of a “scared straight” program, in 1989, a program for youth offenders where they take unwitting sentenced juveniles to the hardest state prisons got sent to the San Quentin State Prison for four days. “The 4 days I spent here were miser-able,” Scott D., From Las Vegas, NV said. “We all arrive on the grey goose & are shackled and escorted to a main pen to be counted & dispersed.” According to Reuters, The cor-rectional complex sits on Point San Quentin, which comprises 432 acres (175 ha) of desir-able waterfront real estate overlooking the north side of the San Francisco Bay. “The prison yard was actually quite large. The middle had a basketball court. Some groups walked around in a loop. Many more were in an exercise area doing constant pull-ups or other exercise,” said Rachel D., From Nashville, TN.

Marcus K.., From San Rafael, CA questions the prison’s ability to straighten out prisoners that have been released.“The question is, what kind of people do we want coming out of here and back into society....and does this place deliver those people?” said Marcus K. California has a 70 percent recidi-vism rate - the highest in the nation according to SF Gate. “I think Korea or Japan have a 98% success rate at rehabilitation while our system is a constant fail rocking a 91% rate of failure and recidivism,” said Nick G. While reviewing comments on the Yelp website might be fun and there are no real information backing the yelper’s comments, there are serious matters that are mentioned in the comments that the prison needs to ad-dress.When a prison is failing to rehabilitate and change people who have been released, the prison is clearly not doing its job.

By Ivan Huang PRISON TIMES/ IVANH019.YAHOOCOM/ @IVANNSAYS

San Quentin State Prison Entrance. Image provided by Getty Images.jpg

Image Provided by Yelp.

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OP-EDHave your say: Are minorities being treated fairly by our law enforcement?

“In the history of modern law enforcement there have been many fa-mous incidents of minorities being unfairly treated. Unfortunately many of those acts often also go unreported. There are officers who mistreat minorities that is a known fact. Mistreatment of minorities does hap-pen within law enforcement but those incidents do not reflect the law enforcement community as a whole. Though many people believe this is something that will always happen, law enforcement agencies are tirelessly attempting to rid themselves of the officers who are continuing the unlawful and inhuman act of racial profiling. Minorities have always been at risk of discrimination unfortunately due to the mindset of many American people. Racial discrimination is something that our society should be evolved enough to eliminate from peoples mentality. It is only a matter of time that America should predjudice free law system. When officers racially discriminate they only show their stupidity and lack of competence for the job they are doing.”

-Christian Suarez, 19, City College of San Francisco

“With more and more laws being passed into congress, more rights are being given to minorities. But as more changes happen with laws, the so called peacekeepers are not doing their fair job in helping them out. Today’s modern law enforcement has done little to treat minorities with impartial treatment. Although the law enforcement of today are sworn by oath to uphold the law, most chose to do so in accordance to when it is most beneficial for them. I believe they chose to do this with a bias perspective against the minorities of today’s society. Throughout history there have been many accounts where those in law enforcement and government agencies have attempted to uphold their own perspective of what the law is but they do so enforcing the law with a preconceived notion against the minority. Such as the case with Emmet Till, a 14 year old African American boy who was brutally beaten to death by a group of men who were enforcing the “law”, which was he had whistled to a white woman and then his killers were acquitted. As a minority myself I have experienced the racial profiling of police first hand. I can’t describe how angry and frustrated I was to be treated so harshly and with so much aggression while not being able to use the rights that are given to me to protect me from ones whose sole purpose is to uphold those rights.”

-Mahmoud Elsakkar, 19, City College of San Francisco

On May 8th, 2013, I was robbed by an African American man, around six feet tall that weighed about 200 pounds at knife point. I was approached at the City College of San Francisco bathroom in the third floor of the Wellness Center, after I was using the bathroom stall heading towards the sink. While heading towards the sink, the man approached me to ask if he could use my phone, “No, sorry I don’t do that,” I said. As I disapproved his borrow-ing of my phone, he quickly pulled out his knife and cornered me. From that point on, I was going to have to make a decision whether I should risk any physical harm towards myself to try and disarm this man, or give the man what he wants and report to the authorities after. I didn’t have much time to think, but I chose to give up my $200 dollar phone that I bought signing a two-year contract with AT&T, thinking that I have a beautiful girlfriend at home that loves me and as stubborn my family is, they love me as well. The man then asked me for all the money I had in my wallet which was not very much, I gave him the 11 dollars that I had left to pay for my gas. “Stay in the bathroom for 20 seconds, and don’t you dare call the cops,” the man said. I only counted to about ten seconds and ran outside to see how far he has fled. Outside there was a group of students that were part of a break-dancing club at our school. I asked one of them to borrow a phone to call the police to report the incident and see if they could arrest this man that took the most valuable possession that I had, my iPhone 5. After an hour of speaking with the police to describe the details of this robber, the man was nowhere to be found around the City College campus that was occupied by the campus police. I was angered not that the man robbed me of my iPhone, but angered about the fact that my back was

pushed against the wall literally, with my life and health on the line and that there was no way that I could of caused pain on this man without leaving with some fatal wounds. “It isn’t worth it, you did the right thing,” the officer said. But I wouldn’t accept that, I kept telling myself that I could have been the hero and either escaped or disarmed this man myself. I’m a very prideful man and I wasn’t going to allow myself to feel something like that was okay. But after I calmed down, I tried to access this situation intellectu-ally. Through my readings from my English 96/1A course that featured the theme of incarceration, I tried to look at this from the robber’s point of view. I came to the conclusion that this man had nothing to lose, this man probably has already been incarcerated, may have been on probation and that this is his only way of survival in this society that doesn’t allow for this man to have an equal opportunity after he has been to the pen. This man is considered in our society to be the minority and by the looks of it, he probably has been to prison, so he is granted unfair treatment when it comes to housing, employment and is looked down upon because he is a felon. Now I put myself into this man’s shoes, I think what options do I have to gain currency? I mean I would need money to buy food and live, I won’t get hired by anybody, and even if I did, the money probably wouldn’t be substantial enough to sustain a healthy lifestyle. I am not speaking for every-one who is put into this man’s shoes, but I, myself would probably resort to doing this. This man by the looks of it wasn’t trying to harm anyone, but if he had to he would. While my back was against the wall at that particular moment on May 8th, 2013, this man is living his life with his back against the wall; our law enforcement is after him, he doesn’t have a consistent flow of currency in order sustain a healthy lifestyle, and he is putting himself in danger every time in his line of work (being a robber). Now I may be wrong about him. Maybe he does have a job, maybe

he has not been to prison, and maybe he does have a family and a significant other that loves him (Probably not, because only a mother could love that face) I do not know. One thing I know for sure is that if someone has a job, or is going to school in order to seek better employ-ment and has never committed any felony or misdemeanor, they wouldn’t have to do things like this. I don’t care how tough people say they are, it takes a lot of courage to rob somebody at a school campus of about 90,000 students, and there is a high possibility that somebody would get caught committing such crimes. (Except in our school) After this incident, it has taught me that I live a privileged life, I haven’t committed any felonies or misdemeanors, I am a student who is majoring in Journalism at the City Col-lege of San Francisco, and I do not have to resort to committing such crimes in order to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Though I do hope that justice is served for the crime that this man committed, I hope and pray for disad-vantaged people including the minori-ties to stay strong, turn it around and beat the system. What I mean when I say “beat the system” is to not commit such crimes, find employment, or go to school to develop the skills to find better employment. Though this man may have gotten away with what he did, I am for certain that if this man continues to com-mit robbery and commit other crimes as a minority who probably has felony charges to his record, he will not get the benefit of the doubt, it is all going to come back and catch him one day, he will go back to prison, then get released and this cycle will continue. After telling this story, I an-swer the question above by saying; No I do not believe that minorities are being treated fairly by our law enforcement, but it is not the law enforcement’s fault, and it is not the minority’s fault either. It is the system which creates a cycle that traps minorities into the standard that our law enforcement holds against the minorities.

-Ivan Huang, 20, City College of San Francisco

Editor’s Corner: Robbery After-math

Photo courtesy of Christian Suarez

Photo Courtesy of Mahmoud Elsakkkar

Illustration provided by Anthony Mata