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Dortell Williams' Radio Broadcasts

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Copyright 2007 Dortell Williams/Prison Radio

Dortell Williams is an inmate at the Los Angeles County California State Prison in Lancaster, California. Dortell has been published in a number of community newspapers, including the San Francisco Bay View, The Final Call and The Los Angeles Sentinel. He mentors at-risk kids through San Francisco's The Beat Within and is an inside correspondent for Families to Amend Three Strikes. You can email Dortell at: dortellwilliams@yahoo.com. For more information about the Honor Yard Program, visit: www.prisonhonorprogram.org

The Honor Yard, It's a No-Brainer

Commentary by Dortell Williams, recorded 8/30/07

1) 2:45 MP3 Radio Essay

The Honor Yard: It’s a No Brainer

It isn’t often that prisoners can claim any victories. By the very nature of incarceration we’re losers. We’ve failed ourselves, our families and society. And in prison, failures of the state conspicuously bare our name – irregardless of how little confinement, or policies made in Sacramento.

So bear with me as I brag a little.

Back in 2000, several prisoners here at the state prison in Lancaster, about 90 minutes northeast of Los Angeles, resolved to make something of ourselves; to go against the stream of fostered racial separation, senseless violence and the tortuous stagnation so inherent within a strictly-punishment model.

The sick desperately desired to be cured and saw rehabilitation as the yellow brick road to healing. With the tacit backing of some progressive staff, the prisoners developed peer support groups, positive programs and learning classes. Here, the educated teach the unlearned, the strong encourage the weak and the talented spread their gifts like an academic potluck.

We call it the Honor Yard.

Here, we agree to random drug testing. We’re not separated by gang membership, and everyone strives to get along. In this maximum-security setting, we haven’t had one major incident since the inception of the program. A claim not even lower-level penitentiaries can make.

Last year, we had 12 prisoners earn their General Equivalency Diploma, and one earned an associate’s degree; out of his own pocket, with outside support. We expect the numbers to increase this year.

The Honor Yard was recently granted permission to donate 5 of our acrylic paintings to the Special Olympics in Beijing.

We’ve also earned the backing of the legislature, who’s endorsing S.B. 299, or the Honor Yard bill; introduced by Senator Gloria Romero earlier this year. The bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to live up to its name, by spreading such voluntary yards to every maximum-security facility in the state. And with the highest recidivism rate in the country, there’s no question the current model has failed – miserably.

What do you say? Would you rather have prisoner released from facilities where they mutually support each others’ success, or from facilities where thick negativity thrives and 79 percent of prisoners are likely to return?

Effective prisons can reform prisoners and this is a win for everybody.

Check us out at www.prisonhonorprogram.org and then urge the governor to sign the upcoming bill.

Update:

Senate Bill 299 sailed unscathed through the Senate Public Safety Committee, the Senate Public Safety Commission, Senate Appropriations and the full Senate. The bill is scheduled to go before the Assembly Public Safety Committee, August 31st, where it is expected to hit turbulence. Old fashioned, traditional letters are requested of the public for legislative supporters of the bill to offset expected opposition.