Saving the Honor Yard<\/strong><\/p>\nRiots, malaise, stabbings, and death have increasingly been the central theme among California\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lackluster prison system. Our prisons are infested with internal inmate politics, tainted with fostered racism and a thriving gang rivalry that all too often bubbles over into society. According to recent media reports society is now suffering from acute and unprecedented levels of these communicable ills. Yet there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one shiny little presence of civility right in the backyard of Los Angeles County that works. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s called the honor program. Here resides a peaceful conglomerate of self-reformed men who have agreed to get along. No racial politics here though we make up a rainbow of ethnicities. It is by no means a perfect place. No hotel living here. The state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s overcrowding purse still wafts it foul stench here like in any other facility. <\/p>\n
Yet we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made up our minds to strive for personal growth and collective cultivation. So this is a high security maximum level facility. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had no riots here since 2000 when we were granted permission to pilot the program. Our harvest overflows. With permission to buy painting brushes, our group, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Artists Serving Humanity,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has donated $50,000 to local charities. Prisoners in the eye-wear department refurbished eye glasses, among others. CROP, or Convicts Reaching Out to People, mentors at-risk youth here on the ground. We share in no uncertain terms, the dark path that got us here and point them to a more illuminated way. In the honor program, the skills of the prison population are utilized for higher learning. Spanish, anger management, creative writing, life skills and critical thinking are just some of the subjects we study. These you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d think would be a given in a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Department of Corrections.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rewards for prisoners, staff, and society have been building. The following is a quote from Richard Faucet of the Los Angeles Times, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A study released by Lancaster Prison officials in 2003 compared illegal activity in the yard before and after the honor program was established. Weapons infractions had decreased 88%. Violence and threatening behavior dropped 85%. Drug related offenses and trafficking were down 43%.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Now prison staff are inexplicably working to disband the program. Why would anyone want to cancel such a money-saving, life-preserving success? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like you to ask Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senator Gloria Romero. Please email him at governor@ca.gov. Or call his office at 916-445-2811. <\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no question that safer prisons mean a safer society. With a prisoner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective, this is Dortell Williams. <\/p>\n
Special thanks to Noelle Hanrahan. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
| the entire program GUEST: California State Senator Gloria Romero California State Senator Gloria Romero is sponsoring a bill to make the Honor Program at the State Prison in Los Angeles County the law. The bill would continue the program as well as lay the foundations for a statewide expansion. Originally created in 2000 by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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![\"Gloria](\"http:\/\/capitolmuseum.ca.gov\/shared\/images\/legislature\/legislators\/s_Gromero.jpg\")
GUEST: California State Senator Gloria Romero<\/em><\/p>\n