How I Prepared for My Pending Incarceration
How Our Family Spent My Last Weekend Before San Quentin
The urge to return grew as my doom approached. Visions of fog-shrouded trails, tidepools, and craggy coves filled my restless sleeping.
Like a salmon thrashing and plowing back up its origin stream to spawn and die, I struggled to face my doom. I realize that I must return to Caspar with my children, for my children. My very existence demands it.
Home? I guess that is the right word. My childhood was a nomadic one — never staying anywhere long enough to make a home.
I had always seen myself a Valley boy, having lost my innocence under LA’s smog red moon. I know better now. Caspar was a one-street ghost town between Mendocino and Noyo Harbor far up the California coast, but as I prepared to say goodbye to my family, it was Caspar that haunted me, defined me. …
The most underreported story in our Capitol’s ‘day of infamy,’ is the actions of DC’s Mayor Bowser that allowed the mayhem to occur.
As both a political conservative and a conscientious person, I am horrified by the take-over of the capital building for four hours on January 6, 2021.
The most underreported story in our Capitol’s ‘day of infamy,’ is the actions of DC’s Mayor Bowser that allowed the mayhem to occur.
“To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway,” Bowser wrote in a letter to acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, and Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING IN TWO MINUTES, WATCH THIS VIDEO (or read the rest of this post). …
To create in any form takes courage, I have found mine through the chrysalis of prison.
I refuse to know for certain what others take for granted.
Curiosity brought you to this post, welcome. Before I share the scope and timbre of my writings, let me share a few adventures I’ve experienced as these may pique your interest to read on and sample my writings….
I have:
- Walked the Great Wall of China at restricted Simatai and been to a private party in the Forbidden City.
- Cast evil spirits out of a girl in a mud hut on Las Pampas of Argentina.
- After dying my hair black, three rounds of makeup, and a Nehru jacket, snuck onto an Indian Military base for a friend’s wedding in Mumbai.
- Friends, Chris Cosentino and Gary Danko, have delivered meals to my apartment on Nob Hill (I’ll be enjoying Danko’s Thanksgiving feast alone this year). …
The evil twin of MULTICULTURALISM known as IDENTITY POLITICS has taken over. Division and discord rule our discourse.
Prison life has brought into focus many of the mysteries I see in modern society as it enters this post-Rationalist/Humanist Age with all the anxiety that accompanies such momentous upheaval.
This essay constitutes my response to a request for a thought piece on our society’s need for people who are equipped to civilly debate opposing views by The Friends of the San Quentin News.
Upon my return from a six-year stint at San Quentin State Prison, I look at the world with new eyes. What I learned in prison was civil discourse is needed to bridge the dialog gap found in our politics.
We are about to enter a new phase of post-election discord. I understand and deploy tools to help weave our community of citizens together, in dialog.
I endorse the aspiration that “Exchanging new ideas, holding our government accountable, and living together peacefully despite differing views all rest on our ability to exercise free speech in a culture of…
“It is therefore reasonable to institute as a standard of care to give at least one single dose of 50,000 of vitamin D to all Covid-19 patients as soon as possible after being hospitalized.”
There’s emerging and growing evidence that vitamin D status is relevant to the risk of developing Covid-19 infection and to the severity of the disease.
There’s emerging and growing evidence that vitamin D status is relevant to the risk of developing Covid-19 infection and to the severity of the disease.
One medical journal recommends: “It is therefore reasonable to institute as a standard of care to give at least one single dose of 50,000 of vitamin D to all Covid-19 patients as soon as possible after being hospitalized.”
The recommended daily allowance of vitamin D is 15–20 micrograms (600–800 units) for everyone in the general population aged 4 years and older, according to the National Institute of Health.
In the United States, 42% of all people have a vitamin D deficiency; however, 82.1% of Black people and 69.2% of Hispanic people have a vitamin D deficiency, according to Healthline in How Much Vitamin D Should You Take For Optimal Health?. …
“Big data” and the intelligence revolution has advanced society’s understanding of crime risk but is often ignored by law enforcement agencies.
We Americans are terrible at estimating our risk of crime.
Will you get robbed this year? How would you rate your chances?
“Big data” and the intelligence revolution has advanced society’s understanding of crime risk but is often ignored by law enforcement agencies. Take violent crime as an example.
First, of course, crime rates do fluctuate from year to year. In 2020, for example, murder has been up but other crimes are in decline so that the crime rate, overall, is down.
“In large cities across America, murders are up sharply, while other violent crimes have decreased,” according to The New York Times. …
Kentucky town hires social workers instead of more officers — and the results are surprising
With the goal to provide expertise and immediately connect people in crisis to needed services, a Kentucky town hired a police social worker to spectacular results reports Wave 3 News.
The City of Alexandria in Campbell County tried something different. Instead of hiring an additional officer, the police chief hired a social worker to respond in tandem with officers.
“Every day is different. We have no idea what’s going to come our way,” said police social worker Kelly Pompilio. “The main calls are domestic violence, mental health, and substance abuse.”
“I try to assist the family in whatever services they need so they don’t have to, whenever they’re having a crisis, or having a situation where they need law enforcement,” said Pompilio. …
Over the first seven months of 2020, Prop 57 has reduced the prison population by an average of 648 per month.
The average monthly prison population impact of Proposition 57 during the first seven months of 2020 is 751 from both credit-earning and new parole considerations (648+96+7=751).
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) continues to struggle to meet its targets estimated under Prop 57.
In a recently released JULY 2020 UPDATE TO THE THREE-JUDGE COURT the CDCR claimed “As of July 8, 2020, the State’s prison population is 123.1% of design capacity.” July 2020 Update
On November 8, 2016, California voters passed Proposition 57 — The Public Safety and
Rehabilitation Act of 2016. According to the Public Policy Institute of California…
Once you accept that some violent offenders can safely return to their communities, mass decarceration suddenly looks plausible.
Three-fourths of all the incarcerated held by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) have been convicted of violent acts. Decarcerating the CDCR by 50% would require releasing large numbers of people convicted of violent crimes.
“Is it possible to do that safely? A wealth of evidence suggests that the answer, again, is yes. All it would require is a fresh look at the data. And some political courage,” reports Jason Fagone in an August 14, 2020, San Francisco Chronicle article.
The main worry about decarceration is public safety related to releasing violent criminals and a possible uptick in crime. Ironically, those who have committed murder can be safe to release: According to a study by the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, between 1995 and 2010, 48.7% of all paroled prisoners in California went on to commit new crimes, but among prisoners convicted of murder who were released, the rate was a minuscule 0.58%. …
During a call with the prison mortuary service, Tracy was told that state policy requires family members of those who die in prisons — of COVID-19 or any other cause — must pay out of their own pockets if they want to receive the remains of their loved ones.
Tracy Henson just wanted her husband’s ashes, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
Then, grieving and still in shock, she was handed a $900 cremation bill.
By the time she spoke with a cremation company in May, the newly widowed woman from Portola (Plumas County) was an emotional wreck. Melford Henson, her husband, deemed a low-risk prisoner by the state, was serving sentence for a DUI at the California Institution for Men in Chino. Until late April, he and Tracy spoke on the phone every day, planning their reunion; Melford was scheduled to be released by the end of 2020.
As COVID-19 was spreading through the Chino’s dormitories, Melford suddenly stopped calling. On April 29, a Chino hospital told her that Melford was on a ventilator, battling COVID-19, unable to speak. She never had a chance to say goodbye to her husband before he died on May 6. …
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