San Quentin News

06/19/2025

Juneteenth is a day to commemorate the end of slavery, but also to recommit to the work that still needs to be done.

“Wherever there’s involuntary servitude, there are still the vestiges of slavery,” SQ resident Arthur Jackson said at last year’s Juneteenth event.

Find out how San Quentin residents celebrate Juneteenth at the link in bio 🔗

06/18/2025

More photos from Parenting Prom 📸🎉

06/17/2025

Throughout the first-ever Parenting Prom at SQRC, fathers and daughters had a hula dance lesson, competed in a Tik Tok dance challenge, played a “Finish the Lyric” game, and spent intentional time where the fathers read a letter out loud to their daughters.

“As fathers we are the protectors, providers, and we are our children’s example of how to navigate circumstances. It is my job to communicate better with them. It is about listening, not to just respond, but confirm what I heard,” said resident Steven Warren at Parenting Prom. “This will be a lasting memory for the rest of our lives. Praise God and thank the most high.”

Resident Michael Navarro said, “I learned to listen to what my daughter is actually saying.” His 11-year-old daughter spent the day playing corn-hole, video games, and fooseball with her father for the first time in a decade. “Before, I was communicating passively because I was in prison and I wanted to make up for me not being there. Now I communicate more effectively in an assertive way.”

Read the story of Parenting Prom, and how it came to be, at the link in bio 🔗
✍️ Michael Callahan
📸 SQ Video Department

06/16/2025

Incarcerated fathers attended an eight-week, peer-to-peer-led family communications workshop put together by resident Tam Nguyen that culminated in a “Parenting Prom.” Throughout the workshop, families strengthened their communication skills with active listening exercises. 

“I learned how to sharpen my communication skills with my kids and how to not put unreasonable expectations on them. I found by asking open-ended questions it allowed my daughter and I to open up more naturally,” resident Troy Varnado said.

Varnado has been incarcerated 18 years and said he felt blessed to have the opportunity to dance and spend intentional time with his daughter. He said he never got to go to proms, graduations, or a father-daughter dance. “So many people stepped up to show they care about us and our family. When you do the right thing others can see we [incarcerated] are redeemable, we can and have changed.”

“I am looking forward to growing our relationship,” Brianna Varnado, daughter of Troy, said. “His personal growth and his ability to heal from his traumas are impressive.”

Read the story at SanQuentinNews.com 🔗
✍️ Michael Callahan
📸 SQ Video Department

06/15/2025

For the first time in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 16 incarcerated fathers danced, played games, and spent the day with their daughters inside the prison walls.

“Families can be one of the most powerful drivers of healing and safer communities,” resident Louis Sāle said. “No event has been more humanistic then giving dads the opportunities to dance with their daughters. I missed my daughter’s prom due to my incarceration.”

The historic step highlighted a different perspective of what a prison experience could be for incarcerated individuals who are discipline-free and involved in self-help programming.

Read the story at SanQuentinNews.com and stay tuned for more Parenting Prom photos!
✍️ Michael Callahan
📸 SQ Video Department

06/06/2025

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Donations over $50 receive a complimentary 12-month print subscription to SQNews (which includes and Mule Creek Post!) 🎉

It’s because of you that we are able to contribute to the narrative around incarceration. Thank you for your support 🗞️

05/03/2025

Celebrate World Press Freedom Day with us!

Yet this year, organizations that work to support a free press behind the walls in California have good reason to feel optimistic. That includes us.

05/01/2025

New edition out now 🎉

Visit SanQuentinNews.com to read about:
➡️ What does public safety really look like?
➡️ The “Convict Code”
➡️ Fred Catano’s journey home

04/03/2025

Check out the latest in prison journalism

Since 1887, prison publications like The Prison Mirror at Minnesota Correctional Facility - Stillwater have shared residents' stories in an effort to promote free expression and initiate change within the justice system.

02/14/2025

Concerns have been made over diminishing food quality and portion size by many San Quentin residents.

Most recently, residents have noticed a decrease in food being served in the dining halls. This is not speculation, but rather the result of the new Correctional Food Manager, Warren Clark.

“The nutritional guidelines have not been followed, and they were not followed before I got here. My objective is to meet the nutritional standards,” said Clark.

Since assuming his post in September 2023, Clark made several changes to the portion sizes and amount of salt added to the food. A number of residents have criticized these changes, stating that CDCR has not been feeding them sufficiently.

Resident Jeremiah Brown said the quality of food is not as good as before Clark’s appointment. He spoke fondly about the traditional “Sunday Grand Slam breakfast.”

“We had hearty food portions, sausage, eggs and sometimes cheese,” Brown said. “We no longer get any of that.”

Read more at SanQuentinNews.com 🔗
✍️ Jordan Junious
📸 SQNews Archive

02/12/2025

Gabriel V. Chavez was a California prison resident for more than 30 years. After finally being released, Chavez was then held in an ICE detention facility for two years. Now, Chavez, 50, is again incarcerated in a Salvadorian prison—an especially dangerous environment for someone covered in tattoos.

In March 2022, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, in response to extreme gang violence in Central America, enacted the “Association With Illicit Activities” law. This law criminalized tattoos in an attempt to give police the power to suppress gangs. Any tattoos, ranging from the Virgin Mary or praying hands, may be interpreted as gang-related under the new law.

“As a mother, after my son was deported and incarcerated, I felt like I was dying,” said Chavez’s mother, Maria Elizabeth Hurren, in an interview.

Hurren, who lives in Riverside County, sends the Salvadoran government $7 a day to ensure her son has food and a place to sleep while behind bars. She noted that if she doesn’t pay, she fears her son will starve to death.

Gabriel Chavez’s story is not an anomaly. Read more at the link in bio 🔗

✍️ Edwin Chavez
🎨Jessie Milo

02/04/2025

The San Quentin community gathered in Chapel A in recognition of the rehabilitation center’s second annual observance of the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The purpose of the event was to bring awareness to deaths caused by transphobic violence.

San Quentin resident and event host Cassandra Evans welcomed two condemned residents, the last transgender women on Death Row at San Quentin. One took to the stage and shared her story.

“When I was 13 my dad caught me dressed up like a girl on my birthday,” she recounted, describing the sexual violence she suffered at his hands. “He told me if I was going to act like a b***h, then he was going to treat me like one.”

She spoke about the daily difficulties transgender people face, including social stigmatization.

“What I want to say is we are [good] enough,” she stated. “We are who we are, we are all women, we have difficulties, but we can overcome everything.”

Read more at SanQuentinNews.com
✍️ TJ Marshall
📸 Marcus Casillas