Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Family Arrested (How To Survive The Incarceration of A Loved One)

Family Arrested
(How To Survive The Incarceration of A Loved One)
By Ann Edenfield
“Family Arrested” is a how-to manual for family and friends of inmates. On August 5, 1986, the Edenfield family changed drastically.
Ann was left penniless after the arrest, conviction and 15-year sentence of her husband. She begun a long
journey that millions are forced to step into.
She addresses the issues of finance, loneliness, community persecution and the many stigmas that label those left behind.
“Family Arrested” is a first-person account on what to expect when a family member or friend is faced with doing time in the federal prison system. Ann takes it step-by-step to answer some questions on how to go through
the arrest, bail, trial and sentencing. Then, she addresses the prison policies for visitation, sending mail and medical health issues.
“Family Arrested” also addresses the release of the inmate.
Many people are affected by the incarceration of one individual. Whether you are the accused facing prison,
the family left behind or the friend trying to understand the system, you will benefit from the ideas and helpful information found in this manual. If you want to understand more about how the system works, this is great starter book. I suggest that an inmate use this manual as a workbook. It would be beneficial for
inmates to pencil in the policy and procedures of their own facility and send their revised version out.
Also available in audio.
To order contact: Wings Ministry,
2270 B Wyoming NE #130,
Albuquerque, NM 87112
(505) 291-6412 or online at
www.WingsMinistry.org

Youth Parole Information

Since we’ve received many questions regarding this new term and what it means, we have included the definition as outlined in a new Administrative Directive from the BPH, issued recently. According to the BPH YPED is defined as (PC Section 2443) “the earliest date on which a youth offender is eligible for a parole consideration hearing, “and is set according to the following criteria: (1) if the controlling offense is a determinate term of any length, the YPED is the first day after the youth offender has completed 14 actual years of incarceration: (2) if the controlling offense is a life term of less than 25 years to life, the YPED is the first day after the youth offender has completed19 actual years of incarceration or (3) if the controlling offense is a life term of 25 years to life, the YPED is the first day after the youth offender has completed 24 actual years of incarceration.”
As to scheduling, PC Section 2444 notes that “Youth offenders shall be scheduled for their initial parole consideration hearing in the year following their UPED unless the youth offender is entitled to an earlier parole consideration hearing pursuant to any other provision of law.
Non-YOPH lifers or inmates enter the parole cycle about a year prior to their Minimum Eligible Parole Date (MEPD), so qualified youth offenders will enter the hearing cycle upon reaching their YPED or one year before their MEPD – whichever occurs first.
Inmates whose YPED occurs prior to their MEPD will enter the hearing cycle earlier than they would have otherwise based on their MEPD. Once qualified youth offenders pass their YPED, they may be released from prison prior to their current MEPD, if they are found suitable and pass both the Board’s decision review and Governor’s review processes.
Neither YPED nor MEPD is not a guarantee of a grant of parole but they can indicate when an inmate will enter the hearing cycle.

‘Toe Tag Parole' Some Juveniles Will Never Get Out!

Subject: [CaliforniaPrisonNews] ThinkProgress: Interviews the Award winning film makers of :Toe Tag Parole

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/07/29/3685194/toe-tag-parole/
--
‘Toe Tag Parole': What It’s Like To Live In Jail When You Know You Are Never Getting Out“It’s not better than
the death sentence because it is the death sentence,” said Kenneth Hartman, a maximum-security inmate
serving life without parole. “The outcome of the death penalty is death — it’s never being free again.”
So begins Toe Tag Parole: To Live And Die On Yard A, a new HBO documentary about 600 men who are
sentenced to life without parole and participate in an innovative rehabilitation program created by the

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in 2000. The film dives into the sentencing of
children to life without parole, who have to confront the ‘other death penalty.’ It follows Wilber Morales, who

received three life sentences plus five years at age 16 for a murder conviction and currently lives in a single cell

while he adjusts to prison culture. Viewers also meet Daniel Whitlow, who was locked up when he was 17 for a

murder conviction.
Although a 2012 Supreme Court ruling says that juveniles can no longer receive mandatory minimum

sentences with no chance of parole, the ruling was not retroactive. So thousands of inmates who were

sentenced as juveniles are still serving life sentences. As of early 2012, there were 301 juvenile “lifers” in California.
Edgar Gomez is one such lifer who was convicted at age 14. One day, while he was hanging out with a group of
friends, a member of the group shot and killed someone with a gang affiliation. Gomez did not pull the trigger, but because he was present during the killing, he was convicted of second degree murder. He was 22-years-old
when the documentary was filmed.
“You can’t help but to think about the decisions that you made in the past and this is what it’s costing you
now. Every day that I’m in my cell I have to live with that — what I could have done. What if that wouldn’t
have happened?” Gomez explains in the film. “You can let that destroy you and let all those thoughts
accumulate in yourself and just go wild like many of the prisoners have done….Why should you just give up on
a 14-year-old because he committed a horrifying crime?”
But the documentary also explores the unique facility where 600 lifers strive to turn their lives around. In the Progressive Programming Facility, also known as Yard A or the Honor Yard, inmates (including those sentenced as juveniles) are completely committed to “breaking the code of violence dominating prison life.” And as a
result, they have unique access to rehabilitative resources, such as anger management, art and music therapy, and peer group discussions. Prospective residents must have a clean behavior record and adhere to strict
requirements: random drug testing, racial integration, participation in a rehabilitative activity, and no gang
involvement.
ThinkProgress talked to Toe Tag Parole filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymonds about making their third prison
film for HBO and fifth criminal justice documentary.
How was this specific prison chosen?
Susan: When we read there a was huge increase in life sentences (1 in 9 prisoners), we started to research the subject. We discovered this yard at the CDCR and that California has the highest number of inmates serving
life (1 in 5). They had to do something with this huge population and so they devised this yard in 2000. We
thought for our purposes it was going to give us great access to men doing life. We shoot in video verite style, so we wanted to have access to as many lifers as possible, in a setting that was going to allow us to walk around and shoot. Alan: It gets into the whole philosophical human rights scenario. If you’re going to
condemn people to die in prison — life without the possibility of parole, the so-called other death penalty —

maybe you should think about how you should treat them and create yards where they can have a better life

than just warehousing them. The sentence is so extreme that we thought this yard would be an interesting

lens into America’s policy of extreme sentencing.
How were the inmates chosen?
Alan: The warden recommended (Hartman and) a couple others, but it was things we just happened upon.

Susan: We were interested in the juveniles who were sentenced to life without. Morales had just arrived so

that was a major coincidence. Alan: The whole juvenile life without parole is another subset of the story and

would make a good interview subject because Morales was just taking it all in. He had that great line about

the nightmare that doesn’t end. Edgar Gomez was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Edgar Gomez’s story also struck a chord with me.
Susan: That’s the nature of felony crimes. I don’t think the public understands the severity of the sentencing.

Alan: At 14 he’s clearly unable to stop what was going on. I think the whole thing of giving sentences, which

essentially means you’re going to spend your life in prison, to such young people is really a horrific miscarriage

of justice. All studies suggest that young men under the age of 18 are not able to always make the best

decision in difficult circumstances. Their brains aren’t fully formed. As they mature up to around age 25, when they become fully aware of things as their brain develops, they’re different people.
In general, how did the inmates perceive you?
Alan: Usually people think [inmates are] the ones that would create the problems when you film. But because

it’s such a closed out society, I think when they see filmmakers like us there — and also see that we’re not just there for an afternoon — I think they actually like it. They think that there’s some hope that we’ll bring some

news to the outside world of their plight. On this particular filming, we had no problems with the inmates. We had people lined up around the block wanting to be in the film.
How did you build their trust?
Susan: We had the ability to win over some guarded people. We were very happy to get into the veterans’
support group, and that took a couple of days for all the men to agree to let us film. That takes time, but you ask politely and they think about it. Alan: We do cinema verite documentaries — observational films. You
hope they let you film them in a natural, spontaneous way. Susan: That’s the value of showing up multiples
times.
Did you hear common themes or concerns, particularly among those sentenced as juveniles?
Susan: Well their complaints are about harsh sentences. One of the overriding themes that we found was they

believe life without is very cruel and at least should be known as the other death penalty. Alan: I think the

younger inmates on this yard are not subject to bullying or sexual advances that are common in other prison yards. I think they mainly were terminally depressed. California leads the nation in the inmate suicide rate.

When you get the life without parole sentence, (it can) make or break you — to get up every day and know
that nothing you do will ever make any difference on your getting out. We should also say the prison does not make it easy to visit.
In the documentary, viewers don’t hear the questions that inmates are answering. Why’d you go with that
approach?
Alan: Normally when we do interviews, the idea is to get people to talk and eliminate ourselves. We’re not
there as correspondents or personalities. We try to be as low key as possible. In the editing process, we try to take our questions out Susan: We want it to seem like it’s flowing like a conversation so that you are
experiencing it. We think it makes it a more personal film if you get to be up close and personal with this
person instead of filtered through us.
Did you encounter any challenges while filming?
Susan: Access to the prison was difficult but we persisted. Alan: California had shut down all filming in their prisons several years before we approached them. What they do is do it on a case-by-case basis. We were successful in convincing them to let us in because we were doing a good representation, and also we’re

Academy Award-winning filmmakers. Once we got in, it wasn’t easy because we had to work with a press
person from the CDCR and she had never worked on a documentary film. The prison is located in the Mojave

Desert so many days we were filming we had 100 degree temperatures. It was a hard location to film in.
My final question for you is: why did you choose to make a documentary on criminal justice?
Susan: You’re shining a light on a forgotten, secret world that America doesn’t know about. If we are going to have any reform of the criminal justice system, we have to shed some light on these places.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. You can watch Toe Tag Parole on August 3 on HBO.

Subject: [CaliforniaPrisonNews] ThinkProgress: Interviews the Award winning film makers of :Toe Tag Parole

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/07/29/3685194/toe-tag-parole/
--
‘Toe Tag Parole': What It’s Like To Live In Jail When You Know You Are Never Getting Out“It’s not better than

the death sentence because it is the death sentence,” said Kenneth Hartman, a maximum-security inmate

serving life without parole. “The outcome of the death penalty is death — it’s never being free again.”
So begins Toe Tag Parole: To Live And Die On Yard A, a new HBO documentary about 600 men who are

sentenced to life without parole and participate in an innovative rehabilitation program created by the

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in 2000. The film dives into the sentencing of

children to life without parole, who have to confront the ‘other death penalty.’ It follows Wilber Morales, who

received three life sentences plus five years at age 16 for a murder conviction and currently lives in a single cell

while he adjusts to prison culture. Viewers also meet Daniel Whitlow, who was locked up when he was 17 for a

murder conviction.
Although a 2012 Supreme Court ruling says that juveniles can no longer receive mandatory minimum

sentences with no chance of parole, the ruling was not retroactive. So thousands of inmates who were

sentenced as juveniles are still serving life sentences. As of early 2012, there were 301 juvenile “lifers” in

California.
Edgar Gomez is one such lifer who was convicted at age 14. One day, while he was hanging out with a group of

friends, a member of the group shot and killed someone with a gang affiliation. Gomez did not pull the trigger,

but because he was present during the killing, he was convicted of second degree murder. He was 22-years-old

when the documentary was filmed.
“You can’t help but to think about the decisions that you made in the past and this is what it’s costing you

now. Every day that I’m in my cell I have to live with that — what I could have done. What if that wouldn’t

have happened?” Gomez explains in the film. “You can let that destroy you and let all those thoughts

accumulate in yourself and just go wild like many of the prisoners have done….Why should you just give up on

a 14-year-old because he committed a horrifying crime?”
But the documentary also explores the unique facility where 600 lifers strive to turn their lives around. In the

Progressive Programming Facility, also known as Yard A or the Honor Yard, inmates (including those sentenced

as juveniles) are completely committed to “breaking the code of violence dominating prison life.” And as a

result, they have unique access to rehabilitative resources, such as anger management, art and music therapy,

and peer group discussions. Prospective residents must have a clean behavior record and adhere to strict

requirements: random drug testing, racial integration, participation in a rehabilitative activity, and no gang

involvement.
ThinkProgress talked to Toe Tag Parole filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymonds about making their third prison

film for HBO and fifth criminal justice documentary.
How was this specific prison chosen?
Susan: When we read there a was huge increase in life sentences (1 in 9 prisoners), we started to research the

subject. We discovered this yard at the CDCR and that California has the highest number of inmates serving

life (1 in 5). They had to do something with this huge population and so they devised this yard in 2000. We

thought for our purposes it was going to give us great access to men doing life. We shoot in video verite style,

so we wanted to have access to as many lifers as possible, in a setting that was going to allow us to walk

around and shoot. Alan: It gets into the whole philosophical human rights scenario. If you’re going to

condemn people to die in prison — life without the possibility of parole, the so-called other death penalty —

maybe you should think about how you should treat them and create yards where they can have a better life

than just warehousing them. The sentence is so extreme that we thought this yard would be an interesting

lens into America’s policy of extreme sentencing.
How were the inmates chosen?
Alan: The warden recommended (Hartman and) a couple others, but it was things we just happened upon.

Susan: We were interested in the juveniles who were sentenced to life without. Morales had just arrived so

that was a major coincidence. Alan: The whole juvenile life without parole is another subset of the story and

would make a good interview subject because Morales was just taking it all in. He had that great line about

the nightmare that doesn’t end. Edgar Gomez was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Edgar Gomez’s story also struck a chord with me.
Susan: That’s the nature of felony crimes. I don’t think the public understands the severity of the sentencing.

Alan: At 14 he’s clearly unable to stop what was going on. I think the whole thing of giving sentences, which

essentially means you’re going to spend your life in prison, to such young people is really a horrific miscarriage

of justice. All studies suggest that young men under the age of 18 are not able to always make the best

decision in difficult circumstances. Their brains aren’t fully formed. As they mature up to around age 25, when

they become fully aware of things as their brain develops, they’re different people.
In general, how did the inmates perceive you?
Alan: Usually people think [inmates are] the ones that would create the problems when you film. But because

it’s such a closed out society, I think when they see filmmakers like us there — and also see that we’re not just

there for an afternoon — I think they actually like it. They think that there’s some hope that we’ll bring some

news to the outside world of their plight. On this particular filming, we had no problems with the inmates. We

had people lined up around the block wanting to be in the film.
How did you build their trust?
Susan: We had the ability to win over some guarded people. We were very happy to get into the veterans’
support group, and that took a couple of days for all the men to agree to let us film. That takes time, but you ask politely and they think about it. Alan: We do cinema verite documentaries — observational films. You
hope they let you film them in a natural, spontaneous way. Susan: That’s the value of showing up multiples
times.
Did you hear common themes or concerns, particularly among those sentenced as juveniles?
Susan: Well their complaints are about harsh sentences. One of the overriding themes that we found was they

believe life without is very cruel and at least should be known as the other death penalty. Alan: I think the

younger inmates on this yard are not subject to bullying or sexual advances that are common in other prison

yards. I think they mainly were terminally depressed. California leads the nation in the inmate suicide rate.

When you get the life without parole sentence, (it can) make or break you — to get up every day and know
that nothing you do will ever make any difference on your getting out. We should also say the prison does not make it easy to visit.
In the documentary, viewers don’t hear the questions that inmates are answering. Why’d you go with that

approach?
Alan: Normally when we do interviews, the idea is to get people to talk and eliminate ourselves. We’re not

there as correspondents or personalities. We try to be as low key as possible. In the editing process, we try to

take our questions out Susan: We want it to seem like it’s flowing like a conversation so that you are

experiencing it. We think it makes it a more personal film if you get to be up close and personal with this

person instead of filtered through us.
Did you encounter any challenges while filming?
Susan: Access to the prison was difficult but we persisted. Alan: California had shut down all filming in their

prisons several years before we approached them. What they do is do it on a case-by-case basis. We were

successful in convincing them to let us in because we were doing a good representation, and also we’re

Academy Award-winning filmmakers. Once we got in, it wasn’t easy because we had to work with a press

person from the CDCR and she had never worked on a documentary film. The prison is located in the Mojave

Desert so many days we were filming we had 100 degree temperatures. It was a hard location to film in.
My final question for you is: why did you choose to make a documentary on criminal justice?
Susan: You’re shining a light on a forgotten, secret world that America doesn’t know about. If we are going to

have any reform of the criminal justice system, we have to shed some light on these places.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. You can watch Toe Tag Parole on August 3 on HBO.

Join us for the CARES Family & Friends Call

Join us for the CARES Family & Friends Call
Tuesday, August 4th at 8:00 pm
when we welcome
Jose G.


CARES is honored to present Jose G. who paroled under SB 260 two months ago after many years in prison. When he reflects on his life, he remembers a family that was loving at times, but his childhood was marked by abuse and abandonment. He was 12 when his father died from an overdose, and soon after Jose was also separated from his mother. Looking back, he sees that he ran from the pain in his young life and turned to gangs. At seventeen he committed a murder, was tried as an adult, and sentenced to life in prison. For a number of years he continued as a gang member, digging deeper into a dark hole.

Join us to hear his remarkable story of transformation and how he moved from that dark place to become a man who left the gang lifestyle far behind, earned an A.A. degree in sociology and behavioral science, and won release. He is now working as an intern at the Anti-Recidivism Coalition and seeks to help others. He hopes to enroll in college and says "ultimately I just want to live and love. I want to be the complete opposite of what I was for so long."

Jose will talk with CARES about the key factors he found helpful in turning his life around; describe his experience with SB 260 and the board; and answer questions from family and friends of youth sentenced to adults.

Please join us! Meet this special person,
welcome him home, and learn from him.

JUST CALL TO JOIN!
Call: (805) 399-1000 Code: 817682#