Due Processing: Incarceration and the Digital Divide

• December 2, 2009: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
• Location: Banatao Auditorium, 3rd floor, Sutardja Dai Hall, UC Berkeley

West Hays and Alayna Johnson [B.A. students, UC Berkeley]

The complete series can be found at http://www.citris-uc.org/events/RE-fall2009.Sponsored by Infineon Technologies.

Donations to this project can be made directly at http://bigideas.berkeley.edu/node/275.

Abstract:
Prison reality television and radio sound bites of slamming cell doors are just two examples illustrating the fascination with incarcerated life in the United States.  Additionally, the country’s exponential prison growth and “tough on crime” posture speaks to a general sense of fear toward this population.  But while our society may fear its prisoners, prisoners often fear technology. The moment of incarceration interrupts not only these individuals’ access to the outside world, but also their access to the developing technologies most of us take for granted in daily life.  Accordingly, their ability to succeed in increasingly hi-tech work environments is similarly interrupted upon release.  The inefficiencies of current vocational curricula, combined with the inability of the prison system to monitor the efficacy of its own programs, has doubtlessly contributed to the state’s alarming rate of recidivism: nearly two-thirds of California’s parolees will return to prison within three years of their release.

Working toward a solution to this problem, UC Berkeley’s Teach in Prison program is creating the San Quentin All Access Computer Center, the prison’s first instructional computer lab.  Starting in February of 2010, courses will be offered in both basic computer literacy and computer-aided design (CAD).  With the cooperation of San Quentin staff and Cal volunteers, evaluations will measure the feasibility of the lab’s construction, efficacy of it’s curriculum, and the impact on parolee employability and recidivism.

Recognizing the problem is only the first step.  How is a computer lab created in an environment where even a typewriter is considered contraband if it has internal memory storage? How does a group conduct research on a sensitive population under the supervision of recalcitrant overseers? How does a normally motivated and supportive staff receive a new program while facing its own 75% reduction in force due to state budget cuts?

Creation of the San Quentin All Access Computer Center has been a lesson in adaptability for UC Berkeley, prison staff, and the inmates who will soon take their first steps across the digital divide.

Biography
West Hays and Alayna Johnson coordinate UC Berkeley’s Teach in Prison program, which sends over 70 Cal students to teach and tutor various subjects inside San Quentin State Prison four days per week.  West spent his teens and early-twenties employed in the IT field, and will be graduating with a BA in English this December.  West teaches a class in poetry and drama at San Quentin.  Alayna (’10) has a background in art practice and education, and teaches in the prison’s art department and adult basic education program.

Presentations