Good afternoon. My name is Wayne Kramer and I’m known in the world mostly as a musician. I write music for movies and television shows and still tour occasionally.

But for a few years, I was known as 00180190. I am an ex-offender. I am also a sober alcoholic and drug addict. I learned in recovery that the antidote for my disorder is to be of service to my fellows. My fellows are the 2.3 million men and women in American prisons.

I find that I am uniquely positioned as a musician and ex-convict to be a bridge between the two worlds and, along with the great British troubadour and activist Billy Bragg, and my wife Margaret, I founded Jail Guitar Doors USA four years ago at Sing Sing Prison in New York.

What we do is simple. We find people who work in corrections that are willing to use music as a tool for rehabilitation and we provide them with guitars. We run programs and we sometimes organize in-prison concert events. We also work for legislative change and justice reform.

Mass incarceration has created a permanent underclass of Americans who are excluded from mainstream life. As a result, there now exists a sub-culture of ex-offenders who are mostly people of color and of limited economic means who are disenfranchised and faced with challenges that most Americans could not conceive of.

Let me be clear. Jail Guitar Doors believes in personal responsibility and the rule of law, but, retribution over rehabilitation as Justice policy makes a mockery of the ideal of Justice and has done incalculable damage to millions of American families and communities.
Why is this so? Because American political expediency has given birth to policies that serve politicians’ interests — at the expense of those whom they have sworn to serve.

To quote Sen. Jim Webb: “We have an incarceration rate in the United States, the world’s greatest democracy, that is five times as high as the average incarceration rate of the rest of the world. There are only two possibilities here: Either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice. It is obviously the latter.”

Along with sentencing reform, offender rehabilitation is the only rational response to our incoherent prison policies of human warehousing. What I can add to the conversation is from our own experience in prisons, with prisoners.

When we put a guitar in a prisoner’s hand, he has the opportunity to express himself in — maybe for the first time ever — a non-confrontational way. A positive and educational way. We know that education is important, but education alone is not enough. A Sheriff’s Deputy once told me, “If I educate a criminal, I have an educated criminal. What’s needed is a change of heart.”

A change of heart is what art, music, writing, theater, painting, sculpture, poetry, and dance can produce: A fundamental change in the way an offender sees himself. Art is anger management. I know from my years in prison that prison is a world designed to reinforce the feeling that you are worthless. Being able to create something where there was nothing is a great argument against that worthlessness. The self-discipline required to create a song teaches the songwriter that change is possible. Something from nothing. That you can make it in the world.

During my time at FCI-Lexington, I was mentored by another inmate/musician, the great jazz trumpeter “Red” Rodney. One inmate teaching another is a profound act. It meant everything to me. Learning from another musician breaks down all the barriers that keep people apart. When we deliver guitars to correctional facilities, we’ve witnessed this happen over and over. Inmates of different races, different gangs, different classes, all come together play music and to teach one another.

We don’t provide guitars as gifts. These guitars are a challenge to step up and do the hard work necessary to change a life for the better and then rejoin your friends and family out here in the community. The guitars send a message that the people who paid for them believe in you, that you are capable of change, and they want you to do better. If you accept our guitars, then you accept that challenge.

Jail Guitar Doors is in over 30 U.S. prisons: California, Arizona, Nevada, Virginia, Washington State, Oregon and we have songwriting programs in Austin TX, Chicago, Ill and here at Wayside in Castaic. We’ve got Philly and LA’s Twin Towers waiting as well. We also have guitars in two of California’s CA Youth Camps.

I can’t do better than to read an excerpt from a recent letter from a fellow in a music program we started in Arizona.

“We have never met, but you have had a tremendous impact on my life. The drum kit you donated is my place of joy. I’ve also been learning guitar on the guitars you donated. What a privilege it is to play music. I feel like a human being when I play. I have seen this equipment work miracles in the lives of convicts. You are changing the world one person at a time. I won’t be returning. I get to go home in 1 year (on a 6 year bit) and I will keep playing. Your work creates a powerful, lasting ripple effect out to many souls. May god bless you.” Florence, AZ

We are all, in fact, “Our brothers keeper”.

If we don’t work to help offenders change for the better, they will surely change for the worse. If we don’t refocus our energy and commitment to helping offenders achieve a positive change, the only thing the get-tough policies will have produced is a nation that is not safer, but less safe by the release of millions of men and women who have been held, many for decades, in a world of racism, violence, bitterness and defeat.

I know it sounds like this is an impossible task, turning the giant prison industrial complex machine around, and it is a formidable undertaking. But we would be if we didn’t try?

People made this mess and people can fix it.

I would like to thank the Joint Committee on the Arts and Senator Curren Price and Assemblyman Ian Calderon for allowing me to join you today to talk a little from my perspective on mass incarceration and what we are doing about it.

The Arts in Corrections program was one of the most successful programs in the history of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In a 1983 cost benefit study, Professor Larry Brewster, currently on the faculty of the University of San Francisco, demonstrated that participants in the Arts in Corrections program showed a 75% reduction in disciplinary write-ups within six months of joining the program. This is an extraordinary measure of a program’s success.

Arts in Corrections began in 1978 in Santa Cruz County, through the William James Association and the vision of Eloise Smith. Our organization continues to be deeply involved in prison arts, both with CDCR and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and has a wealth of experienced fine artists available to provide high quality programming.

The realignment of California corrections, which will bring many inmates and convicted felons into the county correctional system on October 1, 2011, is an opportunity to integrate arts programming into the jail system from the outset. Involvement in the arts offers several significant and obvious benefits:
1. The reduction in disciplinary problems can reduce staff time involved in policing and documenting negative behavior.
2. Arts activities in the jails can focus on serving different sectors of the community at large, strengthening ties between the incarcerated and their community.
3. Community service arts projects will state clearly to the community that the goal of the criminal justice system is rehabilitation, and that the community has an important role in that process.

Because the realignment process will begin slowly, an arts program will require little investment at the beginning. With a small investment, it can demonstrate its effectiveness, and create community support for expanding programming as the jail population grows.

Attached you will find descriptions and cost projections for three fine arts classes that I feel would yield excellent results for all concerned.

Jack Bowers, Chair
Board of Directors
jack@williamjamesassociation.org

Three Classes for a Fine Arts Program in Santa Cruz County Jails

1. Oral Poetry Project- This class will be formatted to nurture individual self expression through oral poetry. Participants will be encouraged to develop original poetry using audio recording, as well as writing as formats. If possible, the instructor will be capable of facilitating this process in both English and Spanish. As appropriate, the work will be shared with appropriate parts of the community, e.g., community radio, youth programs.
Costs:
3- 12 week classes, 2 hours/ class, $75.00/class instructor fee $2700.00
Supplies 300.00
Total 3000.00

2. Jail Mural Project- The mural project is conceived as a way of making positive visual statements within the jail environment, to develop images that will contribute to reducing stress in the jail for all concerned. The mural should symbolize through a student generated process images of growth, rehabilitation and community.
Costs:
20 3-hour classes at $100/class $2000.00
Supplies 700.00
Total $2700.00

3. Guitar Building Project- This is a long-term project to develop arts related skills that fit vocational opportunities in the community, as well as provide significant opportunities for community service through building fine guitars for local schools. Two successful guitar building projects were carried out in CDCR in the 1990s, both under the supervision of local luthier and busisnessman Kenny Hill of Hill Guitars. He is enthusiastic about assisting in developing a project that can train woodworkers who can serve in the vibrant local guitar building community. An appropriate beginning would involve locating appropriate woodworking tools, establishing a space and developing an appropriate program concept.
Costs:
80 hours of administrative work @ $20/hr $1600.00
Supplies 500.00
Total $2100.00

Note: Overall administrative costs for the William James Association to carry out a project of this sort would be 20% of the total, and are not included above.

Ronnie Goodman, Self-Portrait, linocut, 2008

Ronnie Goodman: The Color of Hope
Linocuts, Drawings, & Paintings from San Quentin and Folsom State Prisons

December, 4 – 30, 2010 (Reception: Saturday, December 4th, from 7-11 pm)
Precita Eyes Mural Arts & Visitors Center – 2981 24th Street, San Francisco

I encourage you to come see Ronnie’s extraordinary work and support him as he transitions to life on the outside.
- Laurie Brooks, WJA Director

Ronnie Goodman has created a large body of artwork while doing time at San Quentin and Folsom State Prisons. It has only been a month since his release. Precita Eyes on 24th Street in San Francisco is exhibiting Goodman’s paintings, drawings and linocut prints throughout the month of December. Goodman will be present at Precita Eyes for an opening on Saturday, December 4th, from 7:00 – 11:00 pm.

For most artists in prison the tendency is to create work about life on the outside. But Ronnie Goodman is an exception to this. His work is about life in prison. Sometimes his work is about the beauty that an artistic eye can find in the day to day. Sometimes his work is about the struggles of life in a cage.

Even while in prison Ronnie Goodman was eager to reach out to his community of San Francisco. He remained in touch with Precita Eyes and the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. He also created artwork used by the Coalition on Homelessness and the Western Regional Advocacy Project.

Goodman made his artwork as part of the Arts in Corrections program, which was defunded by the State budget last February, but continues with private funding from individual donors matched by the Marin Community Foundation.  He studied with Katya McCulloch’s linocut class and Patrick Maloney’s painting and drawing class and guest printmaker Art Hazelwood at San Quentin in a program overseen by Steve Emrick. He studied with Bill Peterson at Folsom State Prison.

Prison/Culture, published by City Lights in 2010, investigates the culture of incarceration as an integral part of the American experience through a compilation of stunning and often heartrending art by inmates and other artists. It features text about the William James Association and the San Quentin Art Program and images of artwork by San Quentin artists.

Participants in the San Quentin Arts Program have produced anthologies, plays, paintings and prints, as well as musical compositions, which have been rendered for institutional as well as public engagement wherever possible. Working with the Marin Shakespeare Company, San Quentin Theater Arts participants have produced and performed three plays over the past 3 years: Romeo and Juliet (2010), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2009), and Much Ado About Nothing (2008). In the June 2010 performance, 10 inmates along with 5 other non-inmate actors performed William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to an audience of approximately 200 hundred other inmates, prison staff and volunteers, news reporters and outside guests.

Brothers in Pen is the name of the creative writing group, the members have produced three anthologies: “Brothers in Pen,” “A Means of Escape,” and “Tragedy, Struggle and Hope,” highlighting the talents, through the written word, of the men of San Quentin. In the latter, Tobias Wolff (This Boy’s Life) contributed the foreword.

The painting and printing classes have produced works of art in a diversity media.
Several prints have been accepted for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress, including Blocks Off the Block, a 2010 edition of 35 hand-bound and hand-printed books of original linocut prints. The Tower Book was awarded the blue ribbon at the 2009 Marin County Fair Fine Art Exhibit. A collaborative piece on censorship, “Ill of Rights,” created by SQ printmakers and printed at SF Center for the Book’s ROADWORKS: Steamroller Prints in 2008, was selected for the County Fair Fine Art Exhibit.

In 2009, the Dalai Lama recognized SQ Artist Facilitator Steve Emrick as an Unsung Hero of Compassion. Presented to “individuals who, through their loving kindness and service to others, have made their communities and our world a better place,” Steve received this honor for his lifelong work in providing meaningful arts experiences in correctional facilities.

In 2009, Peter Merts’ Slideshow of the SQ Arts program is featured on Photo Philanthropy – a website dedicated to showcasing photo documentaries. Peter’ beautiful photography offers people from the outside a view into the power and beauty of what is happening in the 20×40 box that is the SQ Art Studio.

Also in 2009, Prominent writers Junot Diaz, Tobias Wolff and renown clown/doctor Patch Adams visited the program to share work and insights.

The Awards honor two individuals and two organizations who inspire collaboration; embrace experimentation, integrity, and evolution; and encourage civic and community exchange and engagement.

The William James Association has been chosen to receive this prestigious recognition!

The Awards will be presented at Intersection’s 45th Anniversary Gala in their new home in the San Francisco Chronicle Building.

We are thrilled to share this honor with you and I would like to encourage you to come join in this celebration of the work of the William James Association – for it is our artists and generous supporters who bring music, color, shape, form and inspiration to this amazing work of providing art to inmates, at-risk youth, parolees and others living on the edges.

Please let me know if you will join us – I’d love share this honor and celebrate with you!

(Also, I can see about  discounted tickets if that will help you to come!)

Get details about the event on June 12th, 7pm

We Need Your Help! -  Hearing in Sacramento on TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8!

We need your help – the Artist Facilitator position is critical to continuing arts programming with any consistency and quality and we want to raise our voices to powers-that-be. On Tuesday, December 8 at 1:30 PM, Room 447 of the Capitol Building, the Assembly Budget Subcommittee will hold a hearing on proposed budget cuts to CDCR Education programs, including Arts in Corrections.

During the public testimony portion of the hearing, we will present information in support of preserving Arts in Corrections. Professor Larry Brewster, whose 1983 research work demonstrated the effectiveness of Arts in Corrections, will join us to speak about that research and his recent study of AIC outcomes as well. Whether or not the Legislature chooses to eliminate Arts in Corrections, we feel like it is crucial that they learn what a transformative, cost effective we have.

If you are able, we would greatly appreciate your presence at the hearing. The physical presence of many supporters of Arts in Corrections in the room will add weight to our testimony.

Thank you,

Laurie Brooks, Executive Director
Jack Bowers, Board of Directors Chair

PLEASE Write Letters in Support of Arts in Corrections!

If you are unable to attend the hearing, please take a moment to contact your own legislator and urge them to preserve Arts in Corrections.
You can find out more about our letter writing campaign on a previous post.

On a Brighter Note

Peter Merts’ Slide Show of San Quentin’s Arts In Corrections program is featured on Photo Philanthropy – a new website that is dedicated to showcasing the work of photographers in social change.  Kudos to Peter for his beautiful photography that shows off the beauty of what is happening in the 20×40 box that is the San Quentin Art Studio.

An urgent situation has developed from the current state budget crisis with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s response being to layoff staff in education, vocational, substance abuse, and other inmates programs – including the one Artist Facilitator at each prison.

We need your help – the Artist Facilitator position is critical to continuing arts programming with any consistency and quality and we want to raise our voices to powers-that-be.

Would you be willing to write a letter against cutting the Institutional Artist Facilitator position and thus the elimination of Arts in Corrections?

Send your letters to:

Laurie Brooks (we want to collect all the letters), Executive Director, William James Association, P.O. Box 1632, Santa Cruz, CA, 95061, laurie@williamjamesassociation.org

Nettie Sabelhaus, Senate Rules and Appointments, State Capitol, Room 420, Sacramento 95614, Nettie.Sabelhaus@sen.ca.gov

Elizabeth Siggins, Chief Deputy Secretary Adult Programs, CA Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, 1515 S Street, Suite 501S, Sacramento, CA, 95811, elizabeth.siggins@cdcr.ca.gov

Scott Kernan, Undersecretary, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, P.O. Box 942883, Sacramento, CA, A 94283-0001

Matthew Cate, Secretary, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, P.O. Box 942883, Sacramento, CA, A 94283-0001

Write to your Senators and Assemblypersons – find them with you zip code at www.legislature.ca.gov

Please send me copies of what you send and let me know if I can help you in this effort!
Thank you so much for your support,

Laurie Brooks
Director, William James Association

Here’s a great example letter from Judith:

Dear Ms. Sabelhaus:

Given California’s various crises, I realize that every state agency must make massive cuts. I urge you to bring to the legislature’s attention that the CDCR should not cut Arts in Corrections. The program has minuscule cost and vast positive impact.

Arts in Corrections provides a large number of prisoners with programming that teaches transferrable skills, reduces tension, and encourages deep self-reflection and responsibility – all for the cost of the salary of only one low-range state employee. The professional artists who teach through Arts in Corrections either volunteer or are paid through grants given by individuals and non-profits.

I taught through Arts in Corrections in the 1980s when the program was much more fully funded. My Disguised as a Poem: My Years Teaching Poetry at San Quentin is a memoir about this experience (copy enclosed). For the past decade I have spoken nationally about prison and prison arts and so I am able to see – in state after state – the respect with which California’s Arts in Corrections is held.

To lose Arts in Corrections – a program that costs the state virtually nothing – would be to lose a program that positively impacts large numbers of prisoners and one that is a revered model in the field.

Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Judith Tannenbaum

jtannen@earthlink.net, www.judithtannenbaum.com

Richard Shelton, a poet and professor at the University of Arizona, has been coming into prisons as a volunteer since the early ’70s, when a man on death row wrote to ask for feedback on his poems. In a new memoir, “Crossing the Yard,” Shelton writes of that and many other extraordinary experiences.

Link to video from PoetryFoundation.org