In March of 2023, Governor Newsom of California announced that the infamous San Quentin State Prison would have its name changed to the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Since the mid-1800s San Quentin has housed some of the most notorious criminals, but times are changing and that includes the use of tablet technology for the incarcerated population. California, like Massachusetts and other states offers free calling on the tablets but texting is still a feature that the incarcerated population must pay for. Because of tablet telecommunications, we can speak with Chan Park directly from his cell inside San Quentin in this milestone episode. Chan has served a total of 32 years in the California corrections system, with this last decade at San Quentin. Chan’s transparency and honesty about his past, his incarceration at the age of 26, his evolution to take responsibility for his actions, and under the new rehabilitation moniker be more involved in helping create change for his San Quentin community, is inspiring. Tune-in for Episode #101 when we continue our conversation with Chan and learn about his bid for parole.

Some prison reform advocacy organizations call their mission, pillars. Some, key initiatives, and in the case of the advocacy organization, The Sentencing Project, are strategic priorities. But at The Sentencing Project, they take their mission one step further and bring a unique value to their prison reform work, as a bridge organization. For Kara Gotsch, Executive Director, uniting their work on the ground, (state-level organizations) with the overarching policy changes at the National Level (legislatively), The Sentencing Project creates a holistic approach to advancing change within their three strategic priorities; extreme sentencing, voting rights, and youth justice reforms. In 2023 as part of their mission to roll back extreme sentencing, they launched their Second Look Network to provide direct legal representation to incarcerated individuals seeking relief from lengthy or unfair sentences. Bridges connecting people to move the prison reform needle.

Gabrielle Perry was one of the lucky ones. Her birth mother was incarcerated when giving birth to Gabrielle. She engaged the aid of a friend who found a family to adopt Gabrielle, site unseen. Her parents were older, settled and without children and as she tells it, her beloved father Thurman Perry, answered the call to raise her as his own. Gabrielle’s life was as normal as could be until as a teenager she lost her beloved father, her mother became disabled, she learned she was adopted, and met her birth mother on her deathbed. Despite Gabrielle’s grit and dedication to her adoptive mother, survival eventually took her down the justice-impacted path. It was during that time in jail that Gabrielle says she found a peacefulness away from the stress of her life. She also found a level of kindness, especially from the Judge who finally heard her case. Gabrielle was once again one of the lucky ones, and over the years has achieved so much. Her greatest joy now is honoring her birth mother and the man who raised her, as she provides direct assistance and resources to system-impacted women and girls.

There are a little over 3,000 Sheriffs’ in the United States. Of that number only 60 are women. Sheriff Donna Buckley of Barnstable County, Massachusetts,(also better known as Cape Cod) is the first female in the County’s 331-year history to hold this office. Sheriff Buckley will tell you that running for Sheriff in 2022 was not on her bucket list, but still, she saw an opportunity to use her forty year background as an Attorney in Criminal Law and Government to build a new path forward for the incarcerated population at the Barnstable jail. As the Sheriff herself states, ‘there is no script to being Sheriff’, but in her role, she believes it is her solemn responsibility to those incarcerated, their families, and the community to provide pathways to a better tomorrow. Sheriff Buckley’s jail houses both men and women but one of her priorities is to cut down the generational incarceration, especially with the women who are under her watch. In a recent survey, the number of her incarcerated women with children, was as she stated, ‘unsettling’. Her 95 incarcerated women, many victims themselves, equated to 103 children.

In the movie E.T., the alien builds a way to communicate with his planet. Inside the jails and prisons in the US, communication between an incarcerated individual and their family and friends, was for many decades, strictly by mail but technology waits for no one. Today, many behind the wall have access to tablets, kiosks, and wall-mounted phones, with tablets being the most popular. Of course, not ALL incarcerated people have access to tablets, and for many, there is a hefty charge, not just for calls but also for SMS Texting. In recent years, States like California and Massachusetts have eliminated charging those incarcerated for their calls, but text messaging is still a pretty penny. The two largest telecom companies providing the tablets and kiosks are funded by private equity investors, people who see the usage from behind the wall as a recession-proof model. Whether the incarcerated population pays out of their commissary account, or in some cases the State pays for the calls, communication from inside has become a billion-dollar industry. In those States where the calls have become ‘free’, the States negotiate a contract with the jail or prison and then cover the costs of the phone and video calls, just not the texts. While the FCC has placed regulatory action to bring the costs down, it is still mostly low-income people who are providing the funds to stay in touch with their incarcerated loved ones.

According to the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice or, in short, RBIJ, everyone is entitled to respect, equality, fairness, and dignity under the law. It is this mission that drives Maha Jweied and her team to work with companies and bring solutions that promote public safety, deliver justice, and strengthen communities. But RBIJ doesn’t stop there. They are dedicated to changing the legal structures and systems that have been used to harm Black and Brown communities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere around the globe. From the Clean Slate legislation, currently passed in twelve states, to the most recent Clean Slate legislation submitted in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to Business Leaders Against the Death Penalty, with 450+ executives from around the world, Maha Jweied and her team are speaking up and stepping up to create a more humane approach to the justice system.

The title of this episode is aptly named for guest Aron Roy. Like many justice-impacted individuals, Aron's journey means digging down deep to find the grit to transform and not return to their past life. But Aron also has the courage to share what sent him to prison for almost a decade and the transformation that took place during those years. Aron’s story is semi-unique in that he entered prison with a Bachelor’s Degree. As Aron fully admits, he was a functioning addict, until he wasn’t. His experience in the California prison system is eye-opening to hear about, but even more so was his realization that his future job prospects would be, at best, minimal. Aron’s ‘ah-ha’ moment was profound, and a guiding light on his road to reentry.

As Joe Biden started winding down his Presidency, and Donald Trump started accelerating his, Joe Biden took advantage, like all Presidents, to commute 37 men sitting on death row. These commutations reduce their sentences from the death penalty to life without parole. These 37 (out of 40) are in federal prisons vs. the thousands that sit on death row, in the State prison systems and can only be commuted by the individual state Governors. The 3 men who did not receive commutations and will stay on death row are those involved with terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. Trump has never been quiet about his support of the death penalty and his call to expand federal executions, once he takes office for the 2nd time. It was during his last presidency that he restarted federal executions, after a 20-year pause, and 13 were executed. Since 1973 at least 200 people in the United States who were convicted and sentenced to the death penalty have been exonerated! If you want more information on the Death Penalty, visit the Death Penalty Information Center.