“Welcome to prison.”
Rahsaan Thomas greets me with a firm handshake and a big grin inside the Catholic chapel at San Quentin. It's job fair day at the prison in December, and things are busier than usual. Thirty seven inmates, including Thomas, are interviewing with 33 potential employers from around the Bay Area. They are hopeful. In the bright scenario that they make it out of prison, they could get hired by the owners of yoga studios, dog grooming boutiques, Home of Chicken and Waffles and City College of San Francisco. Even after years of being incarcerated, these hardened men know that these first impressions could pave the way for their reimmersion into society.
Thomas, who is serving a 55-year-to-life sentence, asks me questions about the day’s biggest news stories. Most of them are related to the recent U.S. presidential elections. I start to answer him, while trying to take in the strikingly beautiful San Francisco Bay ironically outside the walls of one of the country’s most notorious prisons and California’s only death row and gas chamber. (Scott Peterson is currently its most infamous inmate).
Thomas shows me his latest story in the inmate run newspaper, San Quentin News — an interview with Golden Gate Warriors star Draymond Green, who spent time at the prison recently, playing dominos with prisoners in the yard.
The subject shifts to election night, and eventually Donald Trump. For inmates at San Quentin, like most people who supported Hillary Clinton, Trump winning the presidency was a wake-up call. Suprisingly enough, even though an overwhelming majority of inmates voted for Clinton in a mock election set up by the prison newspaper, quite a few of those very same people are willing to give Trump a chance. But it comes with reservations.
They want Trump to "Make America Great Again." But for everyone, not just one particular class. Their way of dealing with this bizarre moment in the history of American politics is honest, poignant, real and at times, funny.[[406654505, C]]
"I voted for Michelle Obama," Thomas, says with a laugh, obviously referring to the prison's mock election. "I am very disappointed she wasn't running. I liked Obama's presidency. I don't think he was perfect, but he did a lot of things right."
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For Thomas, Trump winning the presidency was heartbreaking. "As an incarcerated American, for a long time, we haven't had enough good Supreme Court decisions," he said. "And the next president gets to decide who becomes the ninth Supreme Court judge, and I don't think Trump is going to pick anyone that's going to change the status quo."
Thomas wants to know if I have any qualms as an immigrant living in the United States under a President Trump. ”Will you get deported?” he asks me. I assure him that I was going to be OK. And then ask him what he thinks about Trump. “I kinda saw it coming — but when I saw Trump was actually leading, that it was the reality, I was like, 'Oh man, what could this mean for America, is there going to be civil war? What does it mean that America voted Trump, do we no longer care about each other?'”
Despite his misgivings, Thomas thinks there might be some upside to Trump. "Trump is going to make us rich," he said with a pause. "Before he gets us killed.”
There’s someone else at San Quentin who thinks that Trump will stimulate the American economy. Curtis “Wall Street” Carroll, also known as the “Oracle of San Quentin,” is a murderer turned stock picker who hangs out with the late actor Robin Williams’ son, Zak Williams, to teach fellow inmates a class on finance.
“Invest in energy,” he tells me. I ask him about Trump.
“I voted for Hillary Clinton in the mock elections, but I think Trump is a better businessman,” he said. “I think the policies that he has in place, if he’s able to get those through the Senate and the House, I think it’s going to stimulate the economy, it’s going to put people back to work, I think it’s going to create a bubble, that’ll eventually burst, and it’ll have its effect down the line.”
For the short term, Carroll said, Trump’s plans will create jobs by taking on debt, starting construction projects, lowering taxes, and using subsidies to hire people. This will rally the stock markets and lift the U.S. GDP.
“Economically, he is going to do for the country what has not been done in modern history,” he said.
Over the next four hours, more than a dozen inmates share their hopes and fears about our current president-elect, who hasn't really been that vocal about criminal justice reform. Trump wants to bring back the death penalty, and in his words: "Bring it back strong." But inmates at San Quentin don't really know what to expect when it comes to Trump and prison reform.
Some prisoners aren't moved by Trump's billionaire and reality star status.
"He needs to quit, he needs to resign," said Eddie Herena, who is serving 55-years-to-life in prison for stabbing a man to death three time. "He's not a politician, he should go back to doing what he does best, which is entertain people."
As the battleground states fell, and it became obvious that Trump was going to win on Nov. 8, the cell blocks became quiet, said Juan Moreno Haines, senior editor of SQ News, who organized the mock elections. It was a completely different scenario from when Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008. That year, inmates cheered and banged on their cell doors to celebrate. Moreno was convicted in 1996 for robbing a bank and subsequently sentenced to 55 years-to-life. He has been in prison for 21 years, and is waiting for his second parole hearing in May of 2020.
San Quentin’s walls are filled with stories. There’s Antwan Williams, co-producer of San Quentin's first ever podcast, "Ear Hustle," set to air in May. Williams wants to keep an open mind about Trump: "The man has some hangups. What does a Trump presidency hold for the black and the poor community? Who knows? The man deserves a shot.”
At the end of the night, I walk up to SQ News editor-in-chief Richard Richardson and asked him what he thought of Trump. “There’s nothing wrong with Trump," he said smiling.
Before I leave, Thomas makes me promise that I'll send him a postcard to let him know I'm OK, come Jan. 21. I promise him I will. [[409406805, C]]
