June 12 1997
CONTACT: Rosemary Gladden, 594-2585
SDSU criminal justice students tour state prisons and meet inmates
Some 26 SDSU criminal justice students will spend the first few weeks of their summer vacation on a week-long tour of California's maximum security prisons. During their trip, they will have an opportunity to talk face to face with wardens, guards and inmates, including some who are serving life terms for murder.
"The trip is designed to give students who will go into corrections exposure to the reality that they will deal with every day," said Paul Sutton, SDSU criminal justice professor who organizes the tours. "Some of them will work with inmates on a supervisory level such as probation or parole officers and others will work directly with them inside prisons. Except for one-day prison tours or what they see on TV, many students don't have the opportunity to see the operations of a prison before they enter the field. For most of the students this will be their first look into an actual prison."
Students depart on Monday, June 16, at 5:30 a.m. and return on Friday, June 20, between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Arrival and departure takes place at SDSU's transit center, located in front of the KPBS Gateway building and at the end of Campanile Drive.
Their itinerary includes visits to San Quentin, home of California's death row and gas chamber; California Men's Colony, a prison with progressive educational and vocational programs; Central California Women's Facility, one of the largest women's prisons in the world; Deuel Vocational Institution, a level three prison which provides certification in over two dozen technical vocations; Folsom, state prison site of one of the largest cell blocks in the world; and Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, a men's prison run by a female warden. The group will also meet with Dan Novey, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.
Sutton has been conducting similar tours since 1982. To his
knowledge, SDSU is the only university in the state to have students embark on such in-depth tours of California's prisons for such an extended period. A former student who was on the first trip and is now a professor at Georgia State University conducts similar tours of three prisons in that area. "Not only are there many more prisons [in California], they also range in levels, minimum to maximum security, and types of prisons, such as women's prisons or rehabilitation facilities," says Sutton. She will be on this trip.
Assignment editors/reporters:
If estimated time of arrival changes, Paul Sutton will call ahead that night (Friday, June 20) and leave a recorded message on his voicemail,
594-4449.