WRITE BACK TO THE START

San Quentin writing program helps heal participants’ childhood trauma

On a clear day last January, policy makers, families and incarcerated individuals at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center gathered in the chapel. More than a dozen incarcerated musicians performed festive music, others mingled with visitors and proudly introduced their service dogs.

The 16 incarcerated men stood before a backdrop of their own childhood photos to share their stories of past traumas and childhood experiences in front of more than 300 guests. Some shared poetry, others shared short stories — all the result of a 26-week intensive program called Back to the Start.

The program, co-led by Dr. Jenny Espinoza and incarcerated team leaders, explored the process of writing to overcome not only past traumas, but to help inform those setting future policies affecting children, especially those in marginalized communities. The program, built around six different writing prompts, allows the participants to explore childhood experiences. Topics include reflections about their home and school environment, child care, access to support services, involvement in the foster system, trauma and loss and first contact with the criminal justice system. During the sessions, the writings are workshopped in small groups.

“Using a trauma-informed approach, we provide participants time and space for processing emotions that can be triggered by these stories and reflections,” Espinoza said.

Espinoza, who served as a primary care physician at San Quentin for eight years before becoming a statewide chief physician and surgeon, initially viewed the program as a one-off project. But she said the response from those inside the walls of San Quentin was so positive that she resigned from her job with the prison to fully build out the program as a nonprofit.

“The response was a bit overwhelming,” Espinoza said. “There was so much demand, we ran out of room in our second cohort but one gentleman that we ultimately added to the program was so eager to be involved he got the writing prompts from a friend and did the work anyway.”

By writing about these events, participants are able to look at their childhood experiences in a new light. But it does more than that. Espinoza has called on local and state policymakers to take a harder look at the longer term impact of what’s called “adverse childhood experience.”

“Why don’t we as a society systematically provide comprehensive support and services to eliminate health and educational disparities in children rather than wait for them to grow up and have lives all too often punctuated by tragedy, dealing with the downstream effects of trauma, poor educational achievement, poverty and incarceration? Besides making logical sense, being more effective and the right thing to do, upstream investments deliver huge cost savings,” she said.

According to the Center for Disease Control, adverse childhood experiences are potentially traumatic events that occur from birth to 17 years. Examples include experiencing violence, abuse or neglect, witnessing violence in the home or community, or having a family member attempt or die by suicide. Other aspects of a child’s environment can undermine their sense of safety, stability and bonding including substance use problems, mental health issues, instability due to parental separation or instability due to household members being in jail or prison.

“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, these kids just got on the wrong track.’ What we’re learning is that they were never on any track to begin with,” said Espinoza.

The event included policy and health panels that explored the impact of adverse early childhoods on individuals and communities, the costs of incarceration and the value of early investment in children. The project was brought to the attention of Sundance and Emmy-award winning filmmaker Jacob Kornbluth, who collaborated with Espinoza to film the event and turn it into a short documentary. Espinoza admits she didn’t initially have an event in mind. Producing an event behind the gates of San Quentin can be tricky, but she said she was up for the challenge.

“I knew I wanted to acknowledge the work of the participants but I wasn’t sure how. At first, I just wanted to get them a cake and celebrate,” she said.

But after speaking with Kornbluth and Back to the Start’s incarcerated team, she expanded her thinking and the event, and the subsequent short film was born.

The film, “Breaking the Cycle — Reflections Behind Bars,” will debut at multiple locations in the Bay Area, starting with a viewing at UC Berkeley on Sept. 16. Espinoza and the team will also debut the film along with panel discussions in Marin County, which serves as the home of the nonprofit as well as the state’s oldest and most recognized prison. They are in the process of identifying venues and collaborators to provide opportunities for community members to learn the real stories from inside the infamous institution that most Marin residents drive past every day but have never visited.

For more information, sponsorship and donation opportunities and to view the trailer, visit backtothestart.org.