Rick Luttmann, Independent Mathematics Studies
I am a Professor of Mathematics at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, where I have taught since 1970. I have been involved in the Prison University Project for over five years. I taught a couple of semesters, but mostly I have been one of the two supervisors (with Edward Clapp) of the Independent Study program. In this we'll teach a student any mathematical topic he wants to learn about. This could include subjects we teach as classes, but that the student would rather study at his own pace (faster or slower than the regular course goes). We've also supervised some students through very advanced material on occasion. There are some prisoners who already have advanced degrees, but they like hanging around our classroom just for the intellectual stimulation provided by other people with mathematical interests.

I was introduced to PUP by one of my own Sonoma State students who, on an internship, was tutoring for one of the study halls during the summer of 2003. However, I had already been "primed" by two other experiences.

For one thing, the then-Warden of San Quentin, Jeanne Woodford, is a graduate of Sonoma State University, having earned a BA in Criminal Justice Administration here in 1978. For her innovative work in Criminal Justice, particularly in initiating the large number of volunteer programs at San Quentin, she has been recognized as a Distinguished Alumna of my institution. I was very inspired by her philosophy.

The other experience involved a student we once had, Steven Stratford, who graduated in 1991 after four years here. He came to us straight from San Quentin. He was a Vietnam vet who came home, as many did, addicted to drugs; and like many Vietnam vets he had a great deal of trouble integrating back into society as a productive citizen. His drug addictions led him to a life of crime; mostly in a desperate search for money to support his drug habit -- hence his eventual sentencing to San Quentin. But there, one day while he was in "the hole", he had an epiphany, about how, yes, he'd been dealt a bad hand and there were lots of other people and institutions who were responsible for his problems; but in the end there was no use railing about them, he was master of his own fate and needed to take responsibility for salvaging whatever he could of his life. He resolved to come to Sonoma State; and Sonoma State, being the institution it is, admitted him. He was an outstanding student here, winning top honors each year in our Scholarship Program; he was President of the Associated Students in his senior year; and he volunteered for every open seat on every Board and Committee we had on the campus -- giving new meaning to the term "involved"! After graduation he went on to serve as Executive Director of the Veterans' Vietnam Restoration Project, an organization that brought troubled Vietnam vets back to Vietnam to help with positive projects like building clinics and water systems so that they could work out their "demons" from the earlier time when they had been there only to kill and destroy.

What inspired me to see how I could help out at San Quentin was Steve's description of the incredible contrast between San Quentin Prison and Sonoma State University -- both state institutions, just a half-hour drive apart on the freeway. But one a place of despair, everyone swirling down a black hole, no one caring, no one offering to help anyone, not the guards, not the other prisoners. The other a University, a place that encouraged personal growth, a place where people reached out to help anyone else, people on the staff but also fellow students. It was almost literally Heaven versus Hell. And I thought, well, maybe I could help bring some of the positive karma from SSU to SQ. I recognize that I have lived a life of privilege and comfort, and not for anything I've ever done to deserve it all. Maybe I have an ethical obligation to share with others less fortunate.

It was many years till I actually took it upon myself to do so, but I'm glad I did, and I feel that I have been able to bring a great deal of positive energy to some of the men at the prison. I know they appreciate our services enormously. We are a symbol that not everyone on the outside has written them off, not everyone just wants them to rot in prison and never show their despicable faces to civilized society again. We are a bridge to the outside world for them, and most importantly in the otherwise stultifying milieu of a prison a bridge to their own humanity. While they are in our classrooms, they are students not prisoners, despite the fact that high walls still surround them. I firmly believe that if one wishes to do something that will be of benefit to society there is hardly a better place to do it. We are doing what the Prison System should be doing but is not: preparing men who have made some mistake in their lives to turn things around so that when they get out they will be productive, functioning citizens. We cannot make their crimes go away; we cannot, and should not, erase or ignore the past. But it's someone else's job to worry about their pasts: mine is to concern myself with their futures. One could hardly ask for a more fulfilling role to play.