by Joan Parkin
Aminah and Daniela are two of my most successful students. Crucial to their success was their strong bond and their commitment to succeed together, no matter what. The two were constant study buddies. They would set their tarps out on the grass and study at every opportunity. This demonstrates how important it is to create the social bonds a correctional institution can often tear apart. “With the French, we busted our butts on the yard every single day with flash cards. We were on the yard every evening and we passed the class. Everyone else was saying it was so hard, but we were willing to do the work. Homework was so much of a headache. It was a very hard class, but we both passed with A’s,” said Daniela. The following is from an interview I conducted with these two amazing young women.
Joan Parkin: What was it like growing up?
Daniela Medina: I grew up in single parent home with four kids. Mom was always working. There was not a lot of interaction because she was at work all the time. There was not a lot of support or guidance. She also had a second job. She worked all day and night, working and cleaning. She couldn’t come to any after school programs or events because she had to work.
I lived in East Oakland, but went to school in Alameda. It was a better life and 
education—school right by the beach—in an excellent neighborhood. At the time I didn’t realize how awkward it was to go by houses in affluent neighborhoods where my mom was cleaning. Today I understand the class dynamics. I didn’t know it wasn’t normal back then. I did understand class in a sense, but we stayed in Alameda in a two-bedroom apartment. I was surrounded by other kids who had two-parent households and money, so they were not struggling. They didn’t have the same kind of background I did. Once we moved back to East Oakland I could see the class differences.
JP: What led to you ending up in prison?
DM: I hadn’t been in trouble before. It was stupid; I can’t explain what I did. It was the people I was around and the culture. I was living in the ’hood, East Oakland, but I didn’t do any crimes. I probably contributed, but I was not caught up doing crime. Then there was a car chase and someone passed away.
JP: What was your first incarceration experience like?
DM: My first time incarcerated was in county jail. I spent three years there fighting the case. I had never been in trouble, was never in juvenile hall. I was so scared—I was not prepared for getting stripped out and things like that. My first memory of that process, there was no one to explain things to me. It was just “take everything off,” and the deputy was so rude.
JP: What was the ruling?
DM: It was a plea deal. I got sentenced to 11 years, to serve 85 percent.
JP: Where were you sent? What was it like to be in prison?
DM: I was in Chowchilla at Valley State Prison. It used to be for women, now it’s for men. In the beginning, I was really disconnected from home. I didn’t want to talk to anyone from home. It felt like I had so long to go, and I tried to avoid the other women. I tried to navigate and not be involved in other people’s drama, not get in the mix. It was hard for me because I was young and drawn into the drama. When I had five years left, I knew I had to change. I said to myself: “Okay, you’re going to go home soon.”
That’s when I started participating in self-help groups. About the time I started participating in the groups, the state made major cuts to programs, and only Coastline Community College was in operation. There was no college except Coastline. It was in 2011 that I started participating in groups and was on the Inmate Advisory Council doing positive stuff. That’s when I wanted to go to college. I saw a sign-up on the board in my unit for Feather River College. I wrote my name on it. It said only 60 people would be accepted and the sign-up was full. And that was only one housing unit. But I was really hopeful and serious.
JP: How many women were in Valley State Prison?
DM: About 4,000 women at the time, down to about 3,000 now.
JP: What was your first day of classes like?
DM: Orientation seemed really official. We got books and everything. It felt like this was real; it didn’t feel like it was phony. Feather River was an ordered module.
It was you, Dr. Parkin, the Incarcerated Student Program director, who said that all of our classes were going to be transferable to the UC system. Now there was an end goal if we wanted it. You were talking about the University of California system, and possibly the Berkeley campus. When you asked if we wanted to go to Berkeley, that’s when everything changed for me. I needed a high GPA, which meant getting really good grades. That was the turning point. As we said together that day: “It was Berkeley or bust!”
JP: What was it about Berkeley that was so meaningful to you?
DM: I always wanted to go to college, but my priorities were messed up. Earning an associate degree at Feather River and being able to transfer units, it felt like I was able to do things I couldn’t do before. I knew I was coming home to Oakland, but I was coming home.
JP: How did the instructor visits to the prison help?
DM: The instructor visits made it feel more official, more important, like it was counting toward something. This made us feel like we were in real classes. Once we started taking classes, I didn’t come out of my dorm. I just did my classes. When I did go out, I went to yard to study with my friend, Aminah. We went out to study French in particular.
JP: What was your biggest challenge?
DM: The biggest challenge doing college in prison is being locked down and unable to turn in our homework. I was there when there was a bunch of funding cuts.
JP: How did you end up at Berkeley once you got out?
DM: Underground Scholars (US). You, Dr. Parkin, told me that there were students at Underground Scholars, so I gave you my email. Underground Scholars contacted me and I visited their small space on campus. They told me about the program and took me to the counselor. I wasn’t ready at that time, though, and maybe they weren’t either. They didn’t have the program up and running yet. I wanted to work for two or three years.
A few years went by, and by 2016 the US was more structured, with a transfer cohort and more staff. I had help with the application and they had a transfer coordinator. I don’t think I would have been able to do Berkeley without US, even though I had a high GPA. My application essay was strong, but I wouldn’t have done it. They kept motivating me to do it.
JP: What did you do before Berkeley?
DM: Before Berkeley I was working at a non-profit, Community and Youth Outreach in Oakland, helping the formerly incarcerated as a case manager supervisor in intervention work for 3½ years. I just left in September to work with Underground Scholars. My goal is to help more Feather River College students to apply. I am a certified life coach and community coach, certified by the International Federation of Life Coaching. I’m also a teaching fellow: I became a Perez Research Fellow, evaluating violence prevention, health, women, and girls.
JP: What’s the hardest thing being on the outside and being a student?
DM: I was already working and had my own place, so the hardest thing was trying to go to school and being a full-time student with all the other responsibilities. That first year I went to work and school, working full time. I saved money, so I could afford to not work the last year. I left my job in September, and will graduate in May with a 3.7 GPA; by the time I graduate it will be summa cum laude. Aminah just got accepted to the Goldman School of Public Policy.
JP: What’s next for you?
DM: I applied for the Master of Social Work program at the UC Berkeley School of Social Work with an emphasis on strengthening communities and organizations. I want to be able to create my own programs, doing direct service. I wasn’t able to have a say in what we were doing. I was able to do the programs funded by the grants we applied for, but wasn’t able to create the programs. For me it’s being able to advocate for formerly and currently incarcerated students. I’m getting a lot of mail, but I want to get more people enrolled at Feather River College.
JP: How do you think being a woman is different than being a man in prison?
DM: I noticed how things shifted in education: I did notice the culture change in women who were incarcerated, because then it turned into people having study groups. Men seemed to have a lot more access to college and to a lot of things. They even have newsletters, which is unheard of for the women. People just had more access to the men. It’s still really hard for me to get in to speak and visit. I’m trying to get into Chowchilla, and still can’t get in. I don’t know where that comes from, but it’s a real struggle to have access.
JP: Why is there a difference in advocacy for men?
DM: There are more advocates outside, because an incarcerated man’s significant other is a woman. Women are at the center of these advocacy groups. The formerly incarcerated groups get mostly men, and hardly any women. There are some paroled men who are going to visit Pelican Bay, but we who have been released can’t get into Chowchilla.
JP: Thank you so much Daniela for this interview. I really appreciate your honesty.
DM: It was my pleasure to share this message about college and rehabilitation so others can learn from it.
Republished from “Perspectives from the Cell Block: An Anthology of Prisoner Writings” – edited by Joan Parkin in collaboration with incarcerated people from Mule Creek State Prison.
