Letter From Foggy San Luis Obispo (CMC)

This place adds new meaning to petty; we really had it good at SQ. Sure there is a lot more freedom to move around and there are no bars and concrete but I’d rather be in a dungeon with access to an education than on a sunny prison yard with nothing to do but exercise. I miss the weekend visits from my family and to some of us, the Prison University Project was their family. I really valued all of the opportunity and the programs at San Quentin. This transfer, by taking away these opportunities, exemplifi ed just how unique SQ is in off ering us inmates a chance to better ourselves. If I had to define what rehabilitation in prison is, it would be the Prison University Project and its eff ect on men in conjunction with all of the self-help programs available at San Quentin.

A litmus on just how much of an impact the PUP program has had on us can be seen in where us transferees were placed in prison work assignments. Out of four of the SQ transferees on the unit two yard, three of us were put directly into clerk positions. The one inmate that did not get a clerk job was not a PUP student and therefore was not given a clerk position. What really puts these job assignments into perspective is that one, clerk jobs are highly sought after and there is a waiting list; and two, there are 900 men on this yard and only about 70 have jobs. Most men wait up to two years before they are assigned a prison job, let alone a clerk position.

In all, none of us like it here one bit. I can’t speak for all of us but I want to come back and fi nish up my AA. I hope that I get the opportunity.

—Aly Tamboura