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A two-hour discussion about the dangers of climate change might not sound like the most exciting way to spend every Saturday night.
But for a few dozen inmates in San Quentin State Prison who meet weekly to participate in Green Life — a seminar about environmentalism and climate change — it’s an escape from day-to-day life behind bars.
“You forget all your problems for a few hours because you’re engulfed in something that’s way bigger than you,” said Kahlil Dallas, a former prisoner who credits the class with helping him turn his life around. “It’s a different level of learning to be humble.”
Green Life, which has served about a hundred inmates in the prison since it launched in 2010, has received funding this year from Share the Spirit, an annual holiday campaign serving disadvantaged residents in the East Bay. Donations helped support 49 nonprofit agencies in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The grant will be used for special events related to the Green Life reentry program, stipends for monthly meetings and training, among other activities.
The year-long class meets weekly inside the state’s oldest prison, although it often ends up running a year and a half due to cancellations related to lockdowns and other security incidents.
Twenty to 25 prisoners learn about the health impacts of air pollution, food sustainability, rising sea levels and other climate topics. They do activities — like a mock trial to determine whether a company is guilty for an oil spill — and each student in the class comes up with an individual project to research and gives a presentation about it at the end of the year.
The classes are organized by Angela Sevin, who started the project as part of the Earth Island Institute, a broader environmental nonprofit in Berkeley. Sevin had never been inside a prison when she helped lead her first workshop inside San Quentin, which houses nearly 4,000 inmates, including those on Death Row, and decided to create a more long-lasting program.
“I realized it was not a good idea to come in and talk and then leave,” Sevin said. “I had to stay and be consistent. These men inside are part of my community, and I need to stay in relationship with them.”
Sevin directs the curriculum and also brings other volunteers into the prison to speak and teach. But inmates who’ve graduated from the class are in charge of leading the weekly discussions as peer facilitators.
That helps them develop leadership skills that they can use when they get out of prison, whether they decide to go into in an environmental career or not.
Some of the students who participate in the program have been behind bars since before climate change was a national topic of discussion.
Dallas, an East Bay native, was 15 when he was arrested for the murder of another teenager in Sacramento. He had participated in a robbery of the victim, Eddie Sanchez, during which one of Dallas’ accomplices shot and killed the 14-year-old. Even though prosecutors admitted Dallas hadn’t pulled the trigger and he said he never intended for Sanchez to be killed, he was convicted of second-degree murder in 2007 and sentenced to between 16 years and life in prison.
Twelve years later, he was released this July under a new California law that changed the way felony murder is prosecuted, allowing accomplices who didn’t actually commit murders to get a new sentencing hearing.
“If this happened today, he would never have been sentenced to life,” said Erin O’Donnell, a San Francisco lawyer who helped Dallas on his case.
Dallas credits Green Life for opening his eyes to environmental issues, and giving him the opportunity to develop positive relationships with his classmates.
“When I was in there, sometimes that’s the only reason I felt sane or felt good about myself,” he said.
His project involved creating games to help get kids interested in gardening — for example, with a competition between students to see who could grow the largest vegetables or use the least water to grow theirs. He said kids could name their seeds after their favorite sports stars or superheroes.
“You could have a battle between Steph Curry Strawberries and LeBron James Lettuce,” he suggested.
In July, Dallas, 32, walked out of San Quentin — his first taste of freedom since he was a teenager. Now he’s living in Oakland, taking classes at Chabot College, and participating in a reentry program as part of Green Life’s curriculum.
Dallas also spends a lot of his time working in community gardens around the East Bay, and he’s hoping to expand on his class project to hold a series of social events, concerts and classes at local gardens, designed to attract young people.
“I want to inspire people to understand it’s OK to go out on a Friday night and hang out at a garden,” he said with a laugh.
Share the Spirit
The Share the Spirit holiday campaign, sponsored by the Bay Area News Group, funds nonprofit holiday and outreach programs in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
To make a tax-deductible contribution, clip the coupon accompanying this story or go to www.sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate. Readers with questions, and individuals or businesses interested in making large contributions, may contact the Share the Spirit program at 925-472-5760 or sharethespirit@crisis-center.org.
