Freshly-printed newspapers were displayed neatly on cafeteria tables of the visitor center at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla recently.
Turquoise, silver and black balloons with matching party streamers brought an air of excitement to otherwise humdrum brick walls. The building buzzed with a rhapsody of encouraging words like “congratulations,” and “we did it.”
Meanwhile, prison staff and many of the incarcerated people they supervise turned the pages of the newspapers with curiosity.
This spirited occasion on Sept.16 was special for Amber Bray, editor-in-chief of the CCWF Paper Trail, the prison’s newly-launched newspaper.
“This is something I never thought I would see when I arrived at CCWF a quarter century ago,” Bray told the audience gathered in the visitor center.
Monday’s event recognized the first issue of the prison’s newspaper, which is led by a staff of incarcerated individuals who handle everything from the written articles to the page design and layout.
The gathering was also a celebration for the prison’s new journalism guild, which graduated 18 members of its first cohort. Those members went through courses and instruction facilitated by university professors and others.
Six months ago, the prison, which is located about 30 minutes south of Merced in California’s San Joaquin Valley, also opened a media center.
A chance to tell stories from inside prison
Many members of The Paper Trail staff are serving lengthy sentences. Some, like Bray, are even serving life without the possibility of parole.
Building the newspaper from scratch, however, has given many of the paper’s journalists a mission to have their voices heard from behind stone walls and steel fences.
“This is a chance to tell your stories,” Jesse Vasquez, executive director of the Pollen Initiative, told the group assembled for the graduation and launch celebration.
The Pollen Initiative is a nonprofit focused on building media centers inside correctional facilities, with the goal of providing training and resources in journalism, videography and other related skills.
Vasquez knows firsthand the transformative power of the written word. He was incarcerated as a juvenile and served nearly 19 years in state prisons.
While incarcerated he became editor-in-chief of the San Quentin News, which he said created a space for him to find purpose. His sentence was eventually commuted by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Vasquez said he recognizes the importance of having a free press inside institutions like CCWF. He hopes The Paper Trail will give the incarcerated journalists at Chowchilla prison a similar sense of purpose.
“You are our crown jewel in the Pollen Initiative,” Vasquez told the group.
The Paper Trail also has been given a nod of approval from the prison’s administration and CDCR.
CCWF Warden Anissa De La Cruz was on hand during the ceremony, and CDCR also had a small camera crew on hand to capture the occasion.
De La Cruz said she would see the San Quentin News in the prison mailroom during the early days of her corrections career. De La Cruz said she always felt those serving time in women’s institutions should have something similar.
“When I got here and got this seat that was my goal,” De La Cruz explained during her brief speech at the event. “I can’t wait to read more articles.”
Learning important skills
Lt. Monique Williams, who has worked in state corrections for more than 22 years and serves as an administrative assistant and public information officer at CCWF, said she and De La Cruz both shed some tears after seeing The Paper Trail’s first issue.
“We are making history today,” Williams said, adding that she’s proud of the work produced in The Paper Trail’s pages.
Diana Lovejoy, chairperson of the CCWF journalism guild, said The Paper Trail is a chance to clear up “a lot of the public misconceptions” that exist about women’s prisons.
Lovejoy said during a presentation that a vast majority of those serving time at the prison have been severely traumatized at some point during their lives.
She said the No. 1 need at CCWF is to have more mental health resources and avenues to learn valuable skills. “We are way overdue for having a voice in this institution,” Lovejoy said.
“We are gaining skills we can actually use in the real world,” she added.
Bray said she and the other members of The Paper Trail staff are already hard at work on the paper’s October issue.
“Our goal is to leave our mark on the CCWF Paper Trail – and gigantic shoes for anyone who comes after us,” she said.