Originally published by Zócalo Public Square. Republished with permission.
I first met Gov. Gavin Newsom during one of his visits to San Quentin News, the newspaper written and run by incarcerated folks at the Bay Area prison.
He came into the media center—a rundown metal-framed building with broken windows and a broken heater—and shook everyone’s hand, listening to us and looking us in the eyes. I was impressed. He treated us like humans.
After the visit, on March 17, 2023, at a press conference inside San Quentin, Gov. Newsom announced that California was transitioning its oldest prison into a rehabilitation center in an effort to counter the failures and inequities of the punitive model. Called the “California Model” by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), this effort feels like a lifeboat trying to navigate the stormy seas of electoral politics.
As Newsom leaves office, rumors and fears circulate about what a new administration could reverse, dismantle, or abandon. Meanwhile, as always, the political debate starts and ends with the catchphrase “public safety”; election season means tough-on-crime rhetoric gets wielded like a weapon of blunt-force trauma. All this discussion and uncertainty have made me think more seriously about what people inside San Quentin want from California’s next governor.
Democratic nominee Xavier Becerra, who used aggressive tactics during his time as California’s top prosecutor, has supported progressive reforms in some instances while resisting others, including public disclosure of certain police misconduct records. His Republican opponent, Steve Hilton, has criticized California’s recent criminal justice policies as too lenient, while calling for more prison capacity and tighter limits on early release. “It’s very simple. More prisons, less crime, and that’s what we are going to do,” Hilton said during the first major statewide debate in February. His campaign also calls for expanded treatment and education programs in prison. Both candidates support Proposition 36, which increased mandatory sentencing for certain retail and drug crimes.
Many of the people in San Quentin, who broadly support the California Model, fear the worst, regardless of their politics.
“I still have to believe that the people at San Quentin want continuity,” Chan S. Park, a longtime San Quentin resident who identifies as a Republican, said. “The changes that began under Gavin Newsom still haven’t solidified in that feeling of permanence yet, and so I believe there’s probably a degree of trepidation and fear that no one knows what’s going to happen once a new governor comes in.”
Park is now counting down the final months of a sentence that began in 1992.
Asked why prison reform and mass incarceration have received relatively little attention in the governor’s race, Park pointed to the competing political pressures candidates face. Public concern about crime remains real, he said, while California also faces the enormous financial costs associated with incarceration and other public services.
“The whole system of lock them up and throw away the key is no longer sustainable,” Park said. “Do you spend more money on incarceration, while schools are getting shut down and social services continue to be reduced?”
What Park values most about the California Model is that it brings together a broader range of stakeholders—including community-based organizations, prison volunteers, reform advocates, abolitionists, families of incarcerated people, and mental health experts—rather than leaving criminal justice policy solely in the hands of law enforcement, prosecutors, or the courts.
Steve Drown, 76, who has been incarcerated for 49 years, worries that a change in political leadership could reverse restorative justice and rehabilitation efforts taken up under the California Model, which emphasizes accountability, healing, education, reentry into society, and better relationships between incarcerated people, staff, and communities. This includes greater emphasis on practices such as facilitated victim-offender dialogue and accountability work aimed at helping incarcerated people understand and repair harm.
Drown said the public does not fully understand “what we the incarcerated go through, what we are experiencing, [and] the efforts we are making to change” before people return to society.
Ron Touchard, another resident who identifies as a Republican, said that if Hilton becomes California’s next governor, his administration should continue the reforms begun under Newsom. He doesn’t necessarily see the California Model as a Democratic policy.
Touchard also wants continued funding for San Quentin, improvements to living quarters and cells in the older buildings, and upgrades to spaces such as the kitchen and canteen.
Miguel Sifuentes has been incarcerated for 27 years, the last 11 at San Quentin. He is concerned that a focus on carceral conditions does not address the larger inequities in the legal system.
“The new San Quentin is unprecedented for those of us who lived under the oppressive culture of violence at other prisons,” Sifuentes said. He asked: “Who is responsible for fixing the horror and hopelessness that comes from the endless cycle of extremely long sentences?”
Sifuentes was not optimistic that any election alone can lead to deeper reform, and that incremental changes, while “incredibly valuable,” often “fall far short of the timeless measures of redemption and healing.” Incarcerated people must confront “the fact that no one may be coming to save us,” he added.
What is going to happen five or 10 years from now? The reality is that San Quentin’s new buildings, as well as the California Model, can be shut down or repurposed for the next administration’s agenda, depending on who wins the governor’s office and what priorities that administration brings with it.
I ask myself, is the California Model just a quick fix to put a good face on prison reform? Or is this a real move toward rehabilitation, restorative justice, and true public safety?
As an incarcerated man who has spent 32 years inside and cannot vote, I would encourage the candidates, and whoever will ultimately be the next governor, to come to San Quentin and walk around and talk with the staff and residents, to witness rehabilitation up close for themselves before making up their minds. And if they do, I hope they are willing to shake our hands and look us in the eyes like the governor before them.
Edwin E. Chavez is a bilingual incarcerated journalist and writer with Empowerment Avenue’s Writing for Liberation program. He is a staff writer and Spanish Journalism Guild chair for San Quentin News. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Solitary Watch, Wall City Magazine, and other outlets.
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