The Green Haven Prison Project
PACT & Yale Law
Newsletter, Vol. 1
PACT & Yale Law
Newsletter, Vol. 1
Welcome to the Newsletter for The Green Haven Prison Project. Read about ongoing work by PACT alums, watch the trailer for our documentary, and see how you can get involved!
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If you are not already a subscriber, you can sign up at the bottom of the page.
An Update from Anthony Dixon
Anthony Dixon was a member of PACT from 2009 until 2012. Since release from incarceration, Anthony has dedicated his life to securing the release of other people in prison. As the Parole Preparation Project’s (PPP) Director of Community Engagement, and in partnership with the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) Campaign and other activists and organizers, Anthony is calling on New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and other state leaders to immediately release all aging and vulnerable people from incarceration. Alongside these organizations, PPP is also demanding that New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision develop a comprehensive plan and strategy to address the conditions of incarcerated people subjected to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anthony remains deeply connected to supporting individuals who are incarcerated with commissary fund and food package needs and welcome home funds. Supportive services at PPP also include resume building and putting formerly incarcerated people on a pathway to employment. Additionally, Anthony currently spearheads a national support group for people who are released called Survivors of the System (SOS). You can learn more about Anthony's work and this group by contacting him at adixon@paroleprepny.org.
Anthony remains deeply connected to supporting individuals who are incarcerated with commissary fund and food package needs and welcome home funds. Supportive services at PPP also include resume building and putting formerly incarcerated people on a pathway to employment. Additionally, Anthony currently spearheads a national support group for people who are released called Survivors of the System (SOS). You can learn more about Anthony's work and this group by contacting him at adixon@paroleprepny.org.
Support the work of former PACT member, Anthony Dixon, by
• Donating to PPP’s COVID-19 response fund at https://www.paroleprepny.org/covid.
• Sharing videos by celebrities John Legend, Joaquin Phoenix, and Hari Nef who have joined the campaign to support incarcerated people throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and have called for their immediate release.
An Interview with Jose Saldana
How did you get involved in PACT?
I went to Green Haven in 2016, when Roy Bolus had just been elected president. He invited me to join the group -- and knowing who he was, that’s exactly what I did. I got involved in PACT because of him.
What did you do as a member of PACT?
Well, pretty quickly I started facilitating a class with Roy and other members of PACT. The class was very important, because it incorporated two things that I thought were missing from our movement: spirituality, and character. I have believed this for a long time. Some of our most powerful movements fell apart because of defects in the character of the leadership, so that’s where we need to focus.
What was the class like?
I think it lasted 6 weeks or so, and we met for maybe three hours every week. The class started with spirituality, and we talked about, for example, resurrection. We were giving the younger men something to attach themselves to that was historical. And from that historical attachment, they could build an identity and a purpose in life. I thought this was very original and proactive of us -- we were the only such program or workshop in Green Haven of this nature.
And the value of it -- I remember one day when we concluded the workshop, there was a gang leader who got up. I was surprised, because I knew the guy was a serious gang banger, and to be honest, I was surprised he had even lasted as long as he had in our class. Roy asked everyone what they had gotten out of the class, this guy -- this gang banger -- got up and said, “thank you, you saved my life.” And he started crying.
That statement is exactly what we are trying to do: save people’s lives, so that the system doesn’t swallow them up. I am so convinced that we need to empower each other if we are going to build this movement.
What have you been up to since you were released?
I was released in 2018. I had been repeatedly denied parole before that, and the Commissioners on the Parole Board were always people with law enforcement backgrounds. They had made their minds up before I got there.
But some years ago, RAPP [Release Aging People in Prison] started addressing the issue of having a parole board dominated by people with law enforcement backgrounds. They collected evidence showing the bigotry and racism of the Commissioners and presented it to the Governors’ office. Then, when five of the Commissioners’ terms expired, the Governor didn’t reappoint them. He appointed a group of new people from diverse backgrounds.
One of the new Commissioners had actually been a candidate put forward by RAPP. And when I went before the Parole Board again, she was the lead Commissioner. I had had so many parole hearings by that time, and every other meeting had lasted 6-12 minutes, and we talked exclusively about the crime I committed in 1979.
But at this meeting, the lead Commissioner -- the new one -- asked me exactly one question about the crime, and then she asked me, “What have you been doing for the last 39 years?”
So I got parole, and I left Green Haven. And after a couple weeks of celebrating, I went to the RAPP office and reported for duty. When the co-founder of RAPP passed away about 10 months later, I was appointed Director.
Has your experience as a member of PACT impacted your work as the Director of RAPP?
Absolutely. Being a part of that PACT programming was such a profound experience. It was all about being able to discard self-destructive traits -- about identifying them, and see them for what they were, and having open discussions about the codes we live by and where they come from, and then deciding that those traits and those codes should be discarded.
I carry that with me, and I will carry it to my grave. Because I understand that if we are to become leaders of this movement, we have to have the trust of the people. And we can’t have the trust of the people if we are infested with character flaws.
How are you responding to the coronavirus pandemic?
Elderly people face health crises in the prison every day of their lives because the healthcare system is so inadequate. People age differently in prison, because it is so bad for your health. In prison, 50 is old. And all across the prison system, people of color are having their lives cut short.
COVID-19 compounds those problems. We know that this virus is fatal to elderly people, and we know that a lot of people in prison are elderly. These are men I left behind in prison, who should have left with me. If they get infected, they will die.
There’s urgency to this matter. That’s why we are calling on the Governor to grant mass clemency for elderly people in prison. Elderly people are the least likely to come back to prison, the least likely to ever harm anybody. There is no reason for them to die in prison. They could come back and be in their communities.
Now, Governor Cuomo is not very open to granting clemency to people with violent offences, so we know this is going to be a hard fight. But we are doing everything we can to bring this to the public’s intention. We cannot have people die in prison because of this virus. That is immoral. This is a humanitarian crisis.
What can Yale alumni do to help?
Send letters, make phone calls, write emails. Tweet! Use social media! Do everything you can to get the Governor to pay attention to this. That’s how you can help.
You can learn more about the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) campaign and Jose Saldana’s efforts at http://rappcampaign.com/.
I went to Green Haven in 2016, when Roy Bolus had just been elected president. He invited me to join the group -- and knowing who he was, that’s exactly what I did. I got involved in PACT because of him.
What did you do as a member of PACT?
Well, pretty quickly I started facilitating a class with Roy and other members of PACT. The class was very important, because it incorporated two things that I thought were missing from our movement: spirituality, and character. I have believed this for a long time. Some of our most powerful movements fell apart because of defects in the character of the leadership, so that’s where we need to focus.
What was the class like?
I think it lasted 6 weeks or so, and we met for maybe three hours every week. The class started with spirituality, and we talked about, for example, resurrection. We were giving the younger men something to attach themselves to that was historical. And from that historical attachment, they could build an identity and a purpose in life. I thought this was very original and proactive of us -- we were the only such program or workshop in Green Haven of this nature.
And the value of it -- I remember one day when we concluded the workshop, there was a gang leader who got up. I was surprised, because I knew the guy was a serious gang banger, and to be honest, I was surprised he had even lasted as long as he had in our class. Roy asked everyone what they had gotten out of the class, this guy -- this gang banger -- got up and said, “thank you, you saved my life.” And he started crying.
That statement is exactly what we are trying to do: save people’s lives, so that the system doesn’t swallow them up. I am so convinced that we need to empower each other if we are going to build this movement.
What have you been up to since you were released?
I was released in 2018. I had been repeatedly denied parole before that, and the Commissioners on the Parole Board were always people with law enforcement backgrounds. They had made their minds up before I got there.
But some years ago, RAPP [Release Aging People in Prison] started addressing the issue of having a parole board dominated by people with law enforcement backgrounds. They collected evidence showing the bigotry and racism of the Commissioners and presented it to the Governors’ office. Then, when five of the Commissioners’ terms expired, the Governor didn’t reappoint them. He appointed a group of new people from diverse backgrounds.
One of the new Commissioners had actually been a candidate put forward by RAPP. And when I went before the Parole Board again, she was the lead Commissioner. I had had so many parole hearings by that time, and every other meeting had lasted 6-12 minutes, and we talked exclusively about the crime I committed in 1979.
But at this meeting, the lead Commissioner -- the new one -- asked me exactly one question about the crime, and then she asked me, “What have you been doing for the last 39 years?”
So I got parole, and I left Green Haven. And after a couple weeks of celebrating, I went to the RAPP office and reported for duty. When the co-founder of RAPP passed away about 10 months later, I was appointed Director.
Has your experience as a member of PACT impacted your work as the Director of RAPP?
Absolutely. Being a part of that PACT programming was such a profound experience. It was all about being able to discard self-destructive traits -- about identifying them, and see them for what they were, and having open discussions about the codes we live by and where they come from, and then deciding that those traits and those codes should be discarded.
I carry that with me, and I will carry it to my grave. Because I understand that if we are to become leaders of this movement, we have to have the trust of the people. And we can’t have the trust of the people if we are infested with character flaws.
How are you responding to the coronavirus pandemic?
Elderly people face health crises in the prison every day of their lives because the healthcare system is so inadequate. People age differently in prison, because it is so bad for your health. In prison, 50 is old. And all across the prison system, people of color are having their lives cut short.
COVID-19 compounds those problems. We know that this virus is fatal to elderly people, and we know that a lot of people in prison are elderly. These are men I left behind in prison, who should have left with me. If they get infected, they will die.
There’s urgency to this matter. That’s why we are calling on the Governor to grant mass clemency for elderly people in prison. Elderly people are the least likely to come back to prison, the least likely to ever harm anybody. There is no reason for them to die in prison. They could come back and be in their communities.
Now, Governor Cuomo is not very open to granting clemency to people with violent offences, so we know this is going to be a hard fight. But we are doing everything we can to bring this to the public’s intention. We cannot have people die in prison because of this virus. That is immoral. This is a humanitarian crisis.
What can Yale alumni do to help?
Send letters, make phone calls, write emails. Tweet! Use social media! Do everything you can to get the Governor to pay attention to this. That’s how you can help.
You can learn more about the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) campaign and Jose Saldana’s efforts at http://rappcampaign.com/.
Update:
Upcoming PACT Documentary
Upcoming PACT Documentary
We are producing a documentary film about the PACT program. As all of us know, PACT has had an invaluable effect on incarcerated men and Yale Law students for decades. Our film will spotlight PACT through interviews with current PACT members, Yale Law students, and both PACT and Yale alumni who participated in the program. We have over 30 hours of footage and are raising funds to hire a film editor to create a powerful product from our footage. We have raised $2,650 toward the $15,000 needed to hire a film editor. You can learn more about these efforts and watch a trailer for the documentary here.
The trailer for our landmark documentary about PACT! Click here to watch.
If you are looking for ways to support New York's incarcerated population, please consider:
1. If you have contacts in Governor Cuomo’s office, let them know about the advocacy efforts of Jose Sandana and the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) campaign.
2. Send letters or emails, make phone calls, and use social media to amplify the RAPP campaign.
3. Donate to the Parole Preparation Project (PPP)’s COVID-19 response fund to help New York’s incarcerated population get access to essential supplies they need.
4. Amplify PPP’s advocacy by sharing videos by celebrities John Legend, Joaquin Phoenix, and Hari Nef in support of incarcerated people.
1. If you have contacts in Governor Cuomo’s office, let them know about the advocacy efforts of Jose Sandana and the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) campaign.
2. Send letters or emails, make phone calls, and use social media to amplify the RAPP campaign.
3. Donate to the Parole Preparation Project (PPP)’s COVID-19 response fund to help New York’s incarcerated population get access to essential supplies they need.
4. Amplify PPP’s advocacy by sharing videos by celebrities John Legend, Joaquin Phoenix, and Hari Nef in support of incarcerated people.