It isn't often that prisoners can claim any victories. By the very nature of incarceration, we're losers. We've failed ourselves, our families and society. And in prison, failures of the state conspicuously bear our name - regardless of how little control we have over the circumstances of our confinement, or policies made in Sacramento.

So bear with me as I brag a little.

Back in 2000, several prisoners here at the state prison in Lancaster, about 90 minutes northeast of Los Angeles, resolved to make something of ourselves, to go against the stream of fostered racial separation, senseless violence and the tortuous stagnation so inherent within a strict punishment model.

The sick desperately desired to be cured and saw rehabilitation as the yellow brick road to healing. With the tacit backing of some progressive staff, the prisoners developed peer support groups, positive programs and learning classes. Here, the educated teach the unlearned, the strong encourage the weak and the talented spread their gifts like an academic potluck.

We call it the "Honor Yard."

Here, we agree to random drug testing. We're not separated by gang membership, and everyone strives to get along. In this maximum security setting, we haven't had one major incident since the inception of the program, a claim not even lower level penitentiaries can make.

Last year we had 12 prisoners earn their general equivalency diploma, and one earned an associate degree out of his own pocket, with no outside support. We expect the numbers to increase this year.
The Honor Yard was recently granted permission to donate five of our acrylic paintings to the Special Olympics in Beijing.

We've also earned the backing of the legislature, which is endorsing Senate Bill 299, the Honor Program, introduced by Sen. Gloria Romero earlier this year. The bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to live up to its name by spreading such voluntary yards to every maximum security facility in the state. And with the highest recidivism rate in the country, there's no question the current model has failed miserably.

What do you say? Would you rather have prisoners released from facilities where they mutually support each others' success, or from facilities where thick negativity thrives and 79 percent of prisoners are likely to return?

Effective prisons can reform prisoners, and this is a win for everybody. Check us out at www.prisonhonorprogram.org and then urge the governor to sign the bill.

To contact Dortell, write to Dortell Williams, H-45771, A2-103, P.O. Box 4430, Lancaster, CA 93539. Listen to him online at www.prisonradio.org/dortell.

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