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I believe image-conscious Apple Computer’s hastily retracted announcement on an outright ban forbidding workers with felony convictions from working on the construction of its massive new 2.8 million-square-foot Cupertino headquarters building does not go far enough.

As an inmate at San Quentin State Prison who will be paroling soon to rebuild my life, my question to Apple is: What do you suppose people with a felony conviction do to earn a living?

I will need the community to support me, not turn its back on me, as a formerly incarcerated citizen. While there is little hope I will be among the 15,000 employees who eventually will work for Apple at Campus 2, banishment from construction and service trades, which historically hire workers with criminal records, leaves me with not many alternatives for employment.

Apple’s flawed policy does two things: It disenfranchises a segment of society from earning an honest living; and, it will drive up crime rates by pushing people back into criminal behavior just to survive.

Apple’s dubious edict tells me that the company holds out no forgiveness for ex-offenders like me and ignores the facts of criminal rehabilitation.

For years, I, like many of the men here at San Quentin, have been preparing to re-enter society. I’ve earned a college degree, taken many offender rehabilitation programs, and will graduate this week from a first-of-its-kind program in computer coding skills. Yet, to Apple, none of this matters.

I am also part of an entrepreneur training program, The Last Mile, which has hosted dozens of entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley technology companies. When these business leaders come to speak to prisoners, almost every one of them has something in common: a previous failure and the tenacity to get back up and reinvent themselves. Steve Jobs (whose picture with the words “Think Different” is hanging in our prison classroom) was the embodiment of this philosophy. Apple needs to follow Jobs in thinking differently about the plight of ex-offenders.

Everyone deserves a second chance. And if Apple truly believes in “opportunity for everyone,” as Apple spokesman Josh Rosenstock said in a statement, it would reconsider this policy, which is discriminatory on its face.

In 2011, 4.8 million Americans were on parole, probation or community supervision, according to a recent study by the Pew Charitable Trusts. If other American companies were to follow Apple’s lead, then what would be the fate of those individuals’ and my employment prospects?

There is a certain irony in a tech company — Apple in particular — not supporting those who have fallen down and managed to pick themselves up.

Everyone in the world knows the compelling story of a failed and virtually bankrupt Apple Computer rising from the brink of collapse. What if investors, banks and the community didn’t give the company a second chance? Would the company be the global giant it is today? Probably not.

When Apple was at its worst, it did get a second chance. Ex-offenders are only looking for the same treatment.

“Reviewing workers criminal history on a case by case basis …,” as Apple claims in its attempt to backtrack on a tragically flawed policy, is a start toward doing the right thing. But if Apple’s interest is to keep the community safe and prevent crime, it would not prevent people from earning an honest living.

Attribution: This article originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 17, 2015.
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Life as an inmate is a rough existence. For prisoners, being housed in a vastly negative environment, surrounded by the worst of the worst, going underfed, and being treated inhumanely becomes the norm. With all of the negative aspects associated with life as a prisoner, it sometimes makes rehabilitation a daunting task and a secondary concern to some inmates. However, mechanisms exist that make rehabilitation possible.

My first step to rehabilitation was the willingness to make necessary changes in my life. This step required outside help to facilitate a transition into true rehabilitation. Being in contact with supportive people eases the loneliness of incarceration. The highlight of my day comes when my wife tells me how proud she is that I am doing excellently in college. These experiences with supportive friends and family help drive my desire to succeed and push me to keep my nose

in my books and my behind out of trouble.

Having access to higher education has changed my life in many ways. I came to prison as a high school dropout, with limited opportunities to attain a well-paying job. However, after attending courses through the Prison University Project, a lot of doors have come open for me. The Prison University Project is a non-profit organization that offers college-preparatory and credit classes leading to an Associate’s degree at San Quentin State Prison. PUP faculty are volunteer instructors from universities in the Bay area.

PUP has enabled me to gain greater insight into the world that we live in and the thoughts and events that have shaped our society. My Ethics, Sociology, and American History courses have helped me to better understand history in context.

They have also exposed me to great thinkers such as Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Aristotle, and A. Phillip Randolph. Being exposed to these thoughts and theories helped reshape my own thinking. The requirement to write and apply various theories of ethics helps inmates place their moral compass in juxtaposition to others, providing deeper insight into the effect of their own choices.

I am halfway toward my goal of attaining an Associate of Arts degree; however, I have employable skills right now. By the time that I graduate from PUP, I will have received more quality skills that are applicable in today’s society.

PUP’s staff and volunteers have given me one of my greatest gifts while incarcerated: they have treated me with basic human dignity. The hardest part of doing a prison sentence is the constant inhumane treatment by staff. Arbitrary punishment is the norm in life as an inmate. An inmate may not reap benefits from their good behavior, but will be negatively impacted by another’s bad behavior.

On countless occasions, I have been strip-searched and made to get completely naked outside for all to see, because two inmates got into a fight on the opposite side of the yard. Strip searches are supposed to be utilized if staff has a reason to believe an inmate is hiding dangerous contraband on their person. However, staff routinely use strip searches as a form of humiliation or intimidation, stripping away not just an inmate’s clothes, but their dignity, as well. Furthermore, inmates are stripped of their personal identity and relegated to a number. While this tactic of assigning inmates numbers to make two or more inmates with the same name easier to identify is effective and logical, the result of an inmate’s loss of their name has psychological effects.

PUP’s volunteers treat inmates like regular humans and refer to us on a first-name basis, and we in turn refer to them as we would our peers. In the prisoner/staff member dynamic, that is almost unheard of. This restoration of basic human dignity has many positive effects on inmates.

I now prefer to spend my time in class or at Study Hall surrounded by the positive environment PUP provides, than to spend time on the yard surrounded by negativity and a misguided understanding of masculinity. All of my friends, either on the yard or in my outside support group, recognize the positive influence the college program has had in my life and commend me on my progress.

PUP is one of the few options that an inmate in California has available to earn a college degree. Moreover, PUP is the only college program that I am aware of that provides inmates lucky enough to participate in the program with in-class instruction; other programs rely on correspondence. These differences in structural operation are important because interacting with instructors allows for students to ask questions on challenging material and the positive feedback from college instructors gives inmates a boost of confidence. This enables students to get the most out of their educational experience, while also helping students achieve better success in the classroom, which directly translates into higher levels of self-confidence. Without a sufficient level of confidence upon release, inmates are susceptible (likely?) to stick to the rivers and lakes that they are used to, meaning they will revert back to criminal activities.

My experience at PUP has been invaluable because I have been provided the educational tools to enrich my life. If members of today’s society are truly interested in what type of educational programs are working to cure the problem of recidivism, the Prison University Project is a wonderful example. PUP not only provides inmates at San Quentin with a quality education, but treats the inmates like human beings, which is conducive to their rehabilitation. The quality of education, along with the formula with which the PUP program operates, should be duplicated in prisons nationwide.

Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.