Andrew/Drew was in Reception at San Quentin for 5 months.(Some inmates are kept up to a year in Reception.) While in Reception he was put in lockdown with all the other white inmates twice. Lockdown is solitary confinement. The prison system punishes everyone in the same group for something one person did. This is a violation of the Geneva Convention, but in America, they do it regularly all the time.
In lock down, prisoners are given smaller portions of food and Drew lost 16 pounds. We were not allowed to visit when he was in lockdown.
And then suddenly, Drew was gone. San Quentin would not give us any information. After a lot of research from his Dad, Bill, we found out that he has been moved to Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California. Coalinga has some vocational programs including Small Engine Repair, Welding, Plumbing, Building Maintenance and Auto Body Repair. Drew may also be able to do some correspondence courses to obtain college credits.
Coalinga is a 3 hour drive from the Bay Area. Although we did hope that they would send him to a place closer to us, we are grateful that Drew is still in California. On Nov 30, 2010 the Chronicle reported that Gov Arnold Schwarnegger is shipping out of state to “private for profit prisons. The State of California is under court order to reduce the prison population and this is Arnold’s solution to ship people out of state so none of their family can visit. “The plan is to ship 5,800 inmates to private prison bring the total to 15,000. Our annual cost was $51 million a year, it will go up to $365 million. This is a link to this article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/30/MN9C1GFTB2.DTL
In lock down, prisoners are given smaller portions of food and Drew lost 16 pounds. We were not allowed to visit when he was in lockdown.
And then suddenly, Drew was gone. San Quentin would not give us any information. After a lot of research from his Dad, Bill, we found out that he has been moved to Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California. Coalinga has some vocational programs including Small Engine Repair, Welding, Plumbing, Building Maintenance and Auto Body Repair. Drew may also be able to do some correspondence courses to obtain college credits.
Coalinga is a 3 hour drive from the Bay Area. Although we did hope that they would send him to a place closer to us, we are grateful that Drew is still in California. On Nov 30, 2010 the Chronicle reported that Gov Arnold Schwarnegger is shipping out of state to “private for profit prisons. The State of California is under court order to reduce the prison population and this is Arnold’s solution to ship people out of state so none of their family can visit. “The plan is to ship 5,800 inmates to private prison bring the total to 15,000. Our annual cost was $51 million a year, it will go up to $365 million. This is a link to this article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/30/MN9C1GFTB2.DTL
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