Pelican Bay State Prison knows its reputation, but they're working to rewrite that narrative from the inside out, with art and education as a key part of its reform. “I was in Pelican Bay when it was called “the worst of the worst,”” says James Webb, who’s been incarcerated for almost 40 years. In that time, he’s earned his GED, worked as a teaching assistant and is taking college classes. “Now, the experience at Pelican Bay is becoming “the best of the best.””
Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit, or SHU, is a big part of its lore. Though once a high-security section of a supermax prison, today it’s home to an education hub where incarcerated people learn workforce skills, earn high school GEDs, and take college courses. But what’s it like teaching art and education in prison? And what does it mean for students and the state?
In this first episode of a 3-part series, Cal Poly Humboldt’s Michael Spagna and College of the Redwoods’ Keith Flamer went inside Pelican Bay to learn more.
[Disclosure: College of the Redwoods and Cal Poly Humboldt instructors are involved in some of Pelican Bay’s programming.]
Transcript:
WEBB:I was in Pelican Bay when it was called “The Worst of the Worst.” Now, the experience at Pelican Bay is becoming “The Best of the Best.”
ANNOUNCER:Pelican Bay State Prison knows its reputation, but they're working to rewrite that narrative from the inside out—with art and education as a key part of its reform. Today, its notorious Secure Housing Unit, or SHU, is an education hub where incarcerated people learn workforce skills, earn high school GEDs, and take college courses. On today's episode of Talk Humboldt, we begin part one of a series about what it's like teaching art and education inside Pelican Bay.
Full disclosure: both College of the Redwoods and Cal Poly Humboldt instructors are involved in some of that work. To learn more about education inside Pelican Bay, the two college presidents went behind the walls with a microphone.
SPAGNA:Hi, I’m Michael Spagna, interim president of Cal Poly Humboldt.
FLAMER:And I’m Keith Flamer, president of College of the Redwoods. Today is a very special Talk Humboldt, where we were able to speak directly with educators and incarcerated people at Pelican Bay State Prison. This is what we heard when we went inside.
<Electric gate clangs>
LEON:I'm Lieutenant Serafin Leon, public information officer at Pelican Bay State Prison. Right now, we are heading up to Facility D, which once was a Security Housing Unit—our Yard One. That’s one of our first gardens, where they grow tomatoes, cilantro, and all sorts of other vegetables.
TAYLOR:We have a rehabilitative guru right here.
WEBB:
I always tell them that in the next ten years, I seriously plan on being known as a CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) guru. My name is James Edward Webb. We’re in Pelican Bay State Prison, D Yard Education, currently taking a class on criminal addictive thinking. It’s going very well.
We're in the GED 3 classroom.
These guys are preparing for their GEDs. We also have college courses that run here. So you have everything here. I’ve been incarcerated here almost 40 years, went from life without the possibility of parole to now being very, very close to going home.
That change came through work, work, work—programs that helped a guy like me, who never thought he'd see daylight again, get this close to going home. And that was all because of education. I didn’t believe it at first, but now I know how real it is.
FLAMER:So you said that, at first, you didn’t believe in education?
WEBB:No, I didn’t.
FLAMER:And now you do. What made you take that first step?
WEBB:Well, I went to Pelican Bay SHU and spent 12 years there. I got to know myself. I earned my GED right here at Pelican Bay in 2002. Didn’t make my whole personal change yet but I realized how, even being in here, learning from all of these books could change my life.
All of that happened because I’ve been working as a TA since 2013, when I got out of the SHU. I got a chance to see clearly how education changed my life. I saw men ahead of me whose lives I wanted to emulate. I said, “Oh, this stuff works.”
SPAGNA:How would you describe your K–12 experience? Did you have access and opportunity when you were going through grade school, middle school, and high school?
WEBB:Of course, I just didn’t take advantage of it. That’s the thing about personal change. Now here, guys know that they can come home. We can go home now. But I tell everybody all the time, I don’t want to go home if I haven’t really changed. That responsibility comes from what I do. I see guys now studying and taking responsibility. We just need the opportunities.
FLAMER:How has education changed the prison environment?
WEBB:It’s changed everything. Before, we didn’t have opportunities to educate ourselves. Our focus was solely on how to survive—we called it “game.”
FLAMER:And how has education changed how you think?
WEBB:It’s given me the understanding that I have options. I don’t have to do crime. I don’t have to be a criminal. That’s been the biggest shift—no more criminal addictive thinking. I know now I can have a successful life. Thank you again.
REXFORD:We are in the education wing of the Delta facility.
ANNOUNCER:That’s Kari Rexford. She works with the education program at Pelican Bay.
REXFORD: What we’re looking at right now is the multi-use classroom. We have a group of about 18 students at tables, facing a smartboard, working interactively with a college teacher going through mathematical equations for college-level studies. I’m going to head into Delta 10 to look at the murals.
<footsteps and background chatter>
We’re now walking through the deep corridor hallway. This mural is a representation of a Thomas Kinkade painting. It was created once all the new programming spaces were fully established, allowing art as a positive reinforcement and a tool for behavioral improvement. It’s even helped with mental health.
FLAMER: How long has the program been in existence?
REXFORD: Since at least late 2017 or early 2018. It started with an incarcerated person named “Thoey”, who was serving life without parole. He was very fond of art, and it helped him manage being in such an intense environment. He advocated heavily—with staff, administration, and with me—to be allowed to teach art to others. That’s how we developed an inmate-led group.
Through his efforts, he went to the parole board. When they reviewed his record—his crime and his conduct while incarcerated—they saw all he had done for the Justice Prison Arts Program. The board decided he should no longer be a life without parole.
His sentence wasn’t just reduced. They told him, “We’re letting you go in two weeks.”
SPAGNA: Wow.
REXFORD: He had built such a strong group—people of the same mindset. It’s not just, “I’m doing my time.” It’s “I have ideas, I want to develop programs and activities.” And now, you see that partnership with custody officers and administration saying, “Yes, let’s build these programs and see what we can do.”
ANNOUNCER: From inside Pelican Bay, you’ve been listening to Talk Humboldt. This series continues next time as Keith Flamer and Michael Spagna sit down with leaders at Pelican Bay and Project Rebound to talk about the ins and outs of this work.
MARK TAYLOR: When you speak about the efficacy of the program, the recidivism rate is less than 3%. The state average is around 50%.
ANNOUNCER: You can hear this and other episodes of Talk Humboldt at KHSU.org.
