Prison Truth: The Story of the San Quentin News

Description

San Quentin State Prison, California’s oldest prison and the nation’s largest, is notorious for once holding America’s most dangerous prisoners. But in 2008, the Bastille-by-the-Bay became a beacon for rehabilitation through the prisoner-run newspaper the San Quentin News. Prison Truth tells the story of how prisoners, many serving life terms, transformed the prison climate from what Johnny Cash called a living hell to an environment that fostered positive change in inmates’ lives. Award-winning journalist William J. Drummond takes us behind bars, introducing us to Arnulfo García, the visionary prisoner who led the revival of the newspaper. Drummond describes how the San Quentin News, after a twenty-year shutdown, was recalled to life under an enlightened warden and the small group of local retired newspaper veterans serving as advisers, which Drummond joined in 2012. Sharing how officials cautiously and often unwittingly allowed the newspaper to tell the stories of the incarcerated, Prison Truth illustrates the power of prison media to humanize the experiences of people inside penitentiary walls and to forge alliances with social justice networks seeking reform. Cover Prison Truth Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments PART I A PRIMER ON PRISON 1. Overview 2. Prison Voices Heard 3. Soledad Brothers 4. Kennedy to Cleaver 5. The Primary Election 6. The Johnny Cash Myth 7. A West Oakland Murder 8. The Lee Commission and the “Tough-on-Crime” Era 9. The San Quentin News 10. The Founding Fathers 11. Media Recognition 12. Sam Robinson 13. Race in the Prison Newsroom 14. The Key Players PART II THE CHARACTERS IN THE NEWSROOM 15. Arnulfo García 16. Glenn Bailey 17. Juan Haines 18. Rahsaan Thomas 19. Richard (Bonaru) Richardson 20. Watani Stiner 21. Kevin Sawyer 22. Asians in the Newsroom 23. Aly Tamboura 24. Little Nick’s Story 25. He Came to Me in a Dream PART III HOW IT ALL CAME TOGETHER 26. The Press in Prison 27. Philanthropy 28. The Forums 29. A New Narrative PART IV MOVING FORWARD 30. Journalism and Rehabilitation 31. The Campus and the Prison 32. Is This Scalable? 33. The Hero with a Thousand Faces 34. Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index