text:
Doing Time in Donovan State Prison
By Maureen Cavanaugh / KPBS Midday Edition Co-Host, Pat Finn / Producer
Published February 1, 2010 at 5:40 AM PST
Producer's Perspective
What I Learned In Prison by These Days producer Pat Finn
Watch the "Life in Prison" documentary
KPBS goes inside R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa for a two-hour broadcast to talk with the prisoners and staff about what life in prison is like. The broadcast marks the first time any radio program has been allowed to tape a program inside prison walls in California. KPBS also sent a photographer to capture images of life inside Donovan.
The entrance to the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa is shown in this undated photo.
Angela Carone
A gym converted in 1989 into a housing unit for 152 Level 3 inmates (medium to high security). There are three officers monitoring this housing. Many of the bunks are three levels high.
Officer B. Graham has been working at R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility since 1997. He works the morning shift in a Level 4 maximum security housing unit. Graham says one of the inmates in his unit is on suicide watch, so part of his job is checking on him hourly. He says the most stressful part of his job is dealing with prisoners who are violent and breaking up fights in the safest way.
A Level 4 inmate waits in a temporary holding tank. These tanks are used when an inmate is in the process of being moved to the Administrative Segregation Unit and is deemed a threat to the safety and security of the institution.
The bakery at R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility employs approximately 85 inmates. The bakery makes roughly 18,000 loaves a day, serving Donovan and five other prisons.
An inmate working in the bakery makes between $90 and $100 a month. It is a desirable job within Donovan, compared to the custodial and clerk jobs which pay between $24 and $48 a month.
Daniel Ayala is serving a three year sentence. He monitors a machine that slices up loaves of bread for use in the inmate lunches.
The shoe factory at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility employs approximately 75 inmates. The factory makes roughly 2,000 shoes a day for all the inmates throughout the California state prison system.
An inmates threads part of a shoe under construction. Like the bakery jobs, shoe factory jobs are coveted because they pay between $90 and $100 a month. Donovan used to have an eye glass factory that employed 115 inmates and made eyeglasses for MediCal patients. It closed in October, 2009 but discussions are ongoing regarding its reopening.
Inmate Kevin Robinson is serving a life sentence for torture. He works in the shoe factory inserting soles into the shoes. The factory makes high top and low top versions of the shoes.
A yard for Level 4 prisoners (maximum security). They are allowed 15 hours of yard time a week.
An inmate with elaborate tattoos walks the perimeter of the Level 4 (maximum security) yard at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility. Tattoos are a way to display gang affiliation in prison. Tattooing is illegal, but inmates manage to make tattoo guns and do it without detection.
Officer Schierbaum has been working at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility for five years. She works in the Level 4, or maximum security units. Schierbaum says being a woman does not put her at a disadvantage. She says "there's nothing that happens here that I can't overcome."
An officer displays a newly re-issued stab and ballistic vest. These vests are worn by all of the officers at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
Inmates in the Administrative Segregation Unit requiring maximum security receive group therapy in holding cells. The Administrative Segregation Unit houses some of the most violent and mentally ill inmates at Donovan.
Lt. Michael Stout
A chapel at R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility that serves Level 3 and 4 inmates. It is an inter-faith, all denominational chapel for the approximately 16 different religious faiths at the prison. There are a total of five chapels at Donovan.
Lockers are given to the various faiths to store materials. Odinism is a pagan religious tradition based in Old Norse gods and mythology. Odin worship is often associated with the white supremacist movement.
A sweat lodge in the yard at R.J. Donovan Recreational Facility. There are between 150-200 Native Americans incarcerated at Donovan.
Inmate Terry Campbell is serving a life sentence for first degree murder at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility. Campbell has been in prison for 44 years and he's 65 years old.
Inside a Level 4 inmate's cell at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
These Days host Maureen Cavanaugh reading her script while recording interviews inside the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility, the only state-run prison in San Diego county. KPBS' These Days is the first radio show to be recorded inside a California state prison.
These Days host Maureen Cavanaugh interviews Donovan Public Information Officer Lt. Michael Stout along with Community Partnership Manager Patti Colston. These Days senior producer Natalie Walsh sits by Cavanaugh while These Days director Kurt Kohnen records the show.
Michael Hagemann is a correctional counselor at the R.J. Donvovan Correctional Facility. He is in charge of the CROP program, where convicts reach out to at-risk teenage boys to try to keep them out of prison.
Ed Franklin is a correctional counselor at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility. He is in charge of the Reception Center, where all prisoners enter Donovan. Franklin evaluates the prisoners to decide which prison they should be sent to and at which level they should be housed.
These Days director Kurt Kohnen records interviews inside the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
Dr. Rick Bjorklund is in charge of all psychological services at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
DO NOT USE THIS PHOTO - PULLED FROM SITE 4/15/10 PER DONOVAN REQUEST FOR OFFICER PRIVACY/SAFETY. APPROVED BY SUZANNE MARMION. Officer William Edrozo works in the investigative services unit at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility, where he investigates and documents gang activity. There are 44 documented gangs in Donovan.
Inmate Robert Walker was convicted of selling crack cocaine. He is a Level 1 prisoner serving the last year of his sentence at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
These Days host Maureen Cavanaugh and producer Pat Finn talk with inmate Robert Walker inside the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
Host Maureen Cavanaugh, producer Pat Finn, and director Kurt Kohnen recording an interview with Level 4 inmate Terry Campbell, convicted of first degree murder. The interview was recorded inside the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
These Days host Maureen Cavanaugh waits for her next guest to arrive for interviews inside the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
MAUREEN CAVANAUGH (Host): I'm Maureen Cavanaugh, and you're listening to These Days on KPBS. In this year's State of the State address, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told Californians that he never again wanted to see our state spend more on prisons than on education. Many applauded the governor's sentiment but with more than 170,000 people behind bars in California, many serving long or even life sentences, the price tag and the problems of our state's prison system are not likely to go away soon. Today on These Days, we're doing something unprecedented in an effort to bring the reality of prison life home to our listeners. We are bringing you the first radio program entirely recorded within a California state prison. We're at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in the southern part of San Diego County. We'll be talking to prison officials, mental health workers, officers and some prisoners themselves to find out what it's like to be in prison, to work in prison, to live behind prison walls. Joining me now to give us an overview of life inside Donovan are my guests. Lt. Michael Stout, Public Information Officer, and Lt. Stout, thank you for being here.
LT. MICHAEL STOUT (Public Information Officer, R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility): Thank you. Good morning.
CAVANAUGH: And Patti Colston, Community Partnership Manager. Patti, welcome.
PATTI COLSTON (Community Partnership Manager, R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility): Thank you.
CAVANAUGH: You know, from an outsider's point of view, which is what we are here, the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility seems to be really huge. How many prisoners do you have here, Lt. Stout?
LT. STOUT: It fluctuates but approximately 4700.
CAVANAUGH: And even though this place looks so big, how many was this facility built to house?
LT. STOUT: It was designed to hold 2200 inmates.
CAVANAUGH: Has overcrowding been an issue ever since you've been here?
LT. STOUT: Well, I started here in 1990 and from that point on, when they designed the prison, it was supposed to be one man per cell, well, ever since I've been here it's been two men per cell. So I've never really noticed it because it's just what I've been, you know, that's what I've worked with for 20 years now, so I don't really notice an overcrowding issue.
CAVANAUGH: Patti, let me ask you, how does the fact that there are more than double the number of inmates here than Donovan was built for, how does that impact the living arrangements?
COLSTON: Well, currently, we have three gyms, which were designed originally for recreation, basketball, which are housing inmates, about 152 inmates per gymnasium. One gymnasium is currently used as our psychological services unit and is used for mental health care on a regular basis.
CAVANAUGH: So these – this facility – these gyms you're talking about were originally designed to be used as gyms.
COLSTON: For recreation, yeah.
CAVANAUGH: Yeah. And now they – this is where the inmates sleep. This is where their bunks are.
COLSTON: Yeah, and in some buildings we have beds in what's called the dayroom, which would normally be used for activities. Instead, we have inmates in double and triple bunk beds.
CAVANAUGH: Lt. Stout, when a prisoner first gets assigned to Donovan, what happens?
LT. STOUT: Well, we're a general population prison as well as a reception center, so we receive inmates that are newly committed to the system from San Diego County, Imperial County. We do get some out of Los Angeles and Orange, but primarily from Orange – I mean, from San Diego and Imperial. So they do come into the system, reception center status. They go through various of screens, medical, mental health, they'll go through whatever their committing offense was and they'll get what they call a classification score as a end result. When they – when that score is determined, that will basically dictate where they'll serve their sentence throughout the state. You know, there's 33 prisons throughout the state as well as a number of fire camps so depending where he falls into the scheme of, you know, his score, that's where he will end up doing – serving his sentence.
CAVANAUGH: I see. So just because you're convicted and sentenced in San Diego County doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to do your time here at Donovan.
LT. STOUT: Correct. I mean, when I first started, we had one facility designated strictly for reception center and three facilities for general population. We've pretty much flipped that now. We've got two general population facilities and then two reception center facilities. So the number of general populations, the ones that actually serve their time here, is, you know, we don't have the number of beds. So…
CAVANAUGH: What kinds of prisoners are here? I know that you break prisoners down or at least their housing levels into security levels 1 through 4. What do those levels mean?
LT. STOUT: Well, Level 1 is your lowest, your minimum security. Now, we do have a minimum facility here at the institution and it houses your non-violent, non-predatorial type individuals, no sex crimes. Those are – they're also relatively short term so they're not doing a long sentence. You know, it's usually four years or less. So, and those are the inmates that'll be doing ground-keeping around the outside perimeter, going to your communities, you know, maybe working at the trolley stations or the Caltrans and those places. And then we also rise all the way to a Level 4, which is the highest, maximum security, and these are inmates who are serving life sentences, have been disruptive in the past, you know, because an inmate could come in, theoretically, his classification score may start out at 30. Well, if he breaks rules and he gets vi – you know, does violations within the system, every time he gets found guilty of those violations, you know, his score will – he'll add points to his score. So an inmate can go from 30 to 100 points if he really wants to, you know, be very disruptive and then that would rise him to a Level 4 and, you know, it turns into a whole 'nother, you know, housing needs for this individual.
CAVANAUGH: So it doesn't – it isn't just determined by the offense that the inmate has committed?
LT. STOUT: No, there's all other different factors. I mean, if he's a multi-termer, maybe he's come into the system one, two, three, maybe four times, those all get figured into his score. And it's a pretty elaborate score sheet, and I couldn't break it down for you but, you know, it's, you know, a lot of math.
CAVANAUGH: I wonder, Patti, I'm interested in what prisoners of whatever level, do all day. Does everybody get up at the same time?
COLSTON: That would actually be a Lt. Stout question.
CAVANAUGH: Oh, certainly, Lieutenant.
LT. STOUT: Well, normally, you know, the wake up call is pretty much standard throughout the prison. Usually 6:30 is the beginning of breakfast. They'll go to feeding. It's not an all open line type thing. When your housing unit's called to go to, you know, breakfast, you go to breakfast. If you don't, then you basically miss it. So the inmates know what the time schedule is. If they know they go at 6:30, by gosh, we hope we're getting them out at 6:30 because they're very programmed to time. And when you start maybe delaying it an hour, two hours, then, you know, that's when they start getting a little bit restless. So it's very important that we start off breakfast early and after breakfast is fed, they'll have some morning recreation, morning day room. Some inmates are going to work. We do have different industries here at the institution that these guys do, as well as education and, you know, other things. And then their lunch meal is given to them during the day, you know, during their breakfast. It's basically a brown sack lunch and they can eat that at their leisures. And then, again, afternoon rolls around, they'll have more yard activity and more day room activity. And then comes dinner time, around four o'clock, and then get everybody fed and then at 1800 is our first general population count, our institutional count. It's a standing count, so every inmate's required to stand, we count, and we've got to make sure we're right on the money. And then after that, then, again, some evening yards for different yards and then, again, 2100, nine o'clock at night, is pretty much lights – doors are closed and that's the end of the day. And they'll be – they'll remain in their cells until, again, six o'clock in the morning, 6:30.
CAVANAUGH: I want to talk a little bit more about the kinds of work that inmates do here at Donovan. There's, from what I understand, a bakery?
COLSTON: Yes.
CAVANAUGH: And what do – Do the prisoners do the cooking here?
COLSTON: They sure do. We have what's called Prison Industries Authority, which is actually a portion of the prison that trains inmates to do certain jobs. And here at Donovan, we have a bakery, we have a shoe factory, we have a laundry, and we just recently lost our optical. We made all the eyeglasses for MediCal patients in our prison here. And due to budget cuts, about 120, 125 inmates lost their jobs, lost revenue of about $4.2 million annually. All the eligibility for 18 to 72 year olds was eliminated as a benefit, therefore, we made about 15,000 pairs of eyeglasses a year.
CAVANAUGH: I see.
COLSTON: We bake about 18,000 loaves of bread a day, and those inmates are paid about fifty cents an hour. About 50% of that goes to restitution. The other half is available for their savings. And it's a real-world model for working. They have to be at work at a certain time. They have to have certain standards for their performance. It's just like an outside job. And we will actually pay for their continued education when they parole through the American Bakery Institute, which would allow them to qualify for a bakery position paying between $22 and $36 an hour on the outside.
CAVANAUGH: Now for people listening to this show, we've heard an awful lot about budget cuts to prisons and programs that have been abandoned. Apparently you're not making eyeglasses anymore because of some of those budget cuts. Have rehab programs been cut back here? Whoever wants to take this, Patti, Lt. Stout?
LT. STOUT: Well, we've currently lost our substance abuse program. That was our – that was back in, I believe, November.
COLSTON: October.
LT. STOUT: October, November. We just lost that, you know, and that was due strictly to budget cuts.
CAVANAUGH: How much of a loss is that?
LT. STOUT: Well, it's particularly a big loss and especially on Facility 3, you know, I mean, Facility 3's got a lot of, you know, individuals that need that type of help and taking that away from them, you know, basically now they just have idle hands. They're pretty much – they have, you know, the work. Jobs are limited as it is due to the number of inmates housed here. So, you know, every time we lose a program, it's just putting more inmates, basically, with nothing to do.
COLSTON: Yeah, about 10% of our inmates, about 400 inmates, were involved in the substance abuse treatment program.
CAVANAUGH: Would it be fair to say that most of the inmates here really don't have much to do with their time?
COLSTON: No, not necessarily. I mean, we provide inmate leisure time activities. There are still three vocational programs. We have a welding program. We have a C Tech program, which is teaching the inmates how to lay cable and how to configure systems for computer systems. And we also have mill and cabinet – oh, excuse me, machine shop, tool & die making, so we do have some programs but at one time we had as many as 19; now we're down to three.
CAVANAUGH: And so does that leave a lot of inmates with time on their hands?
LT. STOUT: Yes. Yes. There's no other way to – there's no where else they can go so they're out on the yards. They'll be in the day rooms. You know, sometimes they get frustrated and – because they're bored, you know.
COLSTON: Well, we've been fortunate here in San Diego County to have the Offender Reentry Program, commonly known as SB-618, which is a comprehensive case management program that the inmates are – or that at the time of sentencing guys are introduced to. And it's a program for nonviolent, felony offenders to – We provided a case manager here in prison. They develop a life plan at the time of sentencing so basically they're planning for reentry at the time of sentencing. And once they complete the program in the prison, they've eligible for up to 18 months of post-release case management, which is our partnership with the DA's office and with UCSD. So those guys are studying. Many of them are enrolled in college courses. Some are enrolled in not SB-618 guys, but other inmates are working on their GEDs and correspondence courses with community colleges and universities, so we have some opportunity that we make available if they're willing to – It's all voluntary so if they're willing to participate, it's there.
CAVANAUGH: I'm just wondering, I want to ask you both quickly, are – do you find working here stressful or dangerous in some way? Or are your jobs pretty insulated?
Lt. Stout.
LT. STOUT: You know, I've come up through the ranks as an officer, promoted to sergeant, lieutenant now, on my way, hopefully, to be captain one day. But, you know, the various, you know, obviously there's certain jobs that are more dangerous than others. But any time you go inside that secure perimeter, you know, anything can happen. You know, sometimes when disruption happens, we don't know about. And normally that's what happens because, you know, sometimes we do get word that things aren't just right and we'll intervene. But normally those spontaneous events, you know, they just happen and you always have to be aware of your surroundings, you always have to, you know, always have to have an avenue of escape if something happens and, you know, you know, some people do get complacent and forget about where they're at sometimes, you know, and it's just something you mentally have to prepare yourself when you go to work because once you start getting complacent, you know, you're at a disadvantage.
CAVANAUGH: And I'm wondering, as a female, Patti, is that a special burden or stressor for you?
COLSTON: Well, I grew up in South LA so this is a place that operates based on rules and we're all trained when we first start to acknowledge correctional awareness. We go through specialized training so that we are respectful of our environment and that we learn techniques to manage our behavior and inmate behavior while we're here. So, fortunately, I've never felt that way. I work with very capable staff, particularly Lt. Stout, who kind of has been my mentor since I've been here. But these guys are very highly trained and very highly skilled. And I'm very confident in the emergency situation as long as I follow the rules and do what I'm supposed to do, I'll be protected. I have been in situations where I've been surrounded by Level 4 inmates on the yard who were complaining about things, and I realize that as long as I am in control and follow the rules and manage my behavior and respect the inmates' rights, I'll be fine.
CAVANAUGH: I want to thank you both for speaking with us today. I've been speaking with Lt. Michael Stout and Patti Colston. Our special broadcast recorded inside Donovan State Prison continues after this short break. You're listening to These Days on KPBS.
CAVANAUGH: I'm Maureen Cavanaugh, and you're listening to These Days on KPBS. Our special broadcast from Donovan State Prison in San Diego County continues. We just heard from prison administrators that Donovan, like all California prisons, is overcrowded and that rehab and occupational programs have been cut. Now we're about to hear from men who are serving time here at Donovan. They've agreed to be on our program to tell us what their lives are like day after day, serving out their sentences at this facility. I'd like to introduce Robert Walker. And, Robert, we know that there are different levels of the way inmates live here. What level are you?
ROBERT WALKER (Level 1 Inmate): I'm a minimum 5 yard, minimum 1, you know, I go outside the gate of Donovan. You know, they got people that can go work inside the communities, you know. You know, I guess it's kind of like a reentry before we get ready to get out because most of the people who's on the 5 yard, they got no lower than 3 to 4 years to do and so they more or less like a model of the inmate that they want to do right, want to change they lives and things, so they cope with the everyday life of being on the 5 yard everyday.
CAVANAUGH: Robert, let me ask you, how did you get in here?
WALKER: My charged offense was in sales to a undercover officer, you know, downtown.
CAVANAUGH: So it was a drug offense.
WALKER: It was a drug offense for 20 – a $20 rock as they call it, the street name, and I got 8 years with half with it, and then I'm finishing it up right now. I've been down over here it's almost 3 years now. I got one more year to do.
CAVANAUGH: Now you – Tell us what your day is like here, okay?
WALKER: Well, ever since 2007, I came over here, I went to ground maintenance. I used to cut the front entrance lawns and keep the maintenance of the grounds good, trim trees, you know, cut the grass, the flowers, whatever the case may be that work outside of Donovan's fence, you know.
CAVANAUGH: Do you live in a cell or a dormitory?
WALKER: We live dormitory living, you know.
CAVANAUGH: And what time do you get up in the morning?
WALKER: I get up about close to 5:00, 5:30, you know, get ready to take a shower if I need to take a shower. Brush, you know, get ready for chow, you know. And after we come from chow, we get ready for what they call for work call, you know, to go to our destination of assigned jobs for the day. And I'm a staff barber, you know. I work off in the administration building, you know. And I deal with officers and staff each and every day, all day. And so it helps me out to relight myself back into the community to know how to deal with the public, you know.
CAVANAUGH: Now is cutting hair something you knew before you got into prison?
WALKER: Oh, well, I'm a cosmetologist by trade.
CAVANAUGH: Uh-huh.
WALKER: I got my license at North Park Beauty College, you know, and I've been cutting hair for years, I've been doing hair for years, you know. And then, you know, and then got special skills because you just can't come out here and talk like you going to be a staff barber if you don't got no special skills…
CAVANAUGH: Exactly.
WALKER: …you know.
CAVANAUGH: Now I know you're a minimum security. Do you run into any guys that you're afraid of here in Donovan?
WALKER: No. Because I'm a OG.
CAVANAUGH: And what does that mean?
WALKER: I've been doing time ever since '72, you know, I'm not proud of it, you know, and – but then it's something that I have to do, you know what I'm saying, to survive. You know, if in – I give each and everybody respect, you know, all races, you know. On the 5 yard, you know, it's not like being on the inside to where you got the barrels, you know, to, you know, race barrels that you got to buy by, walk by and, you know, that, you know (sic). We more or less get along because we all work together. We all got to look out for each other, you know, in all the job assignments that we have, you know, but then, you know, on the 5 yard.
CAVANAUGH: So you've had a prison sentence before, right?
WALKER: Yeah.
CAVANAUGH: Yeah, since 1972. Have you been in Donovan before?
WALKER: Yes, I've been in Donovan before.
CAVANAUGH: Okay. And, you know, a lot of people say the problem – one of the big problems of being a prisoner is that you kind of live the same day over and over again, day after day, week after week. Do you feel like that?
WALKER: Yeah, because you's programmed. You're programmed, you know, like you got to do your time, it ain't no way around it. You know, so you got to make the best of it, you know, the best as you can of it, you know. I will say, wasn't for me, you know, I get up, I do what I have to do, make my day, come back, watch my TV, watch programs, this and that, that's my day. Wait for the next day to come, you know, and then I wish I can cut it all off but I can't, so I'm going to have to accept this and deal with this…
CAVANAUGH: I'm…
WALKER: …the best way I can.
CAVANAUGH: I'm speaking with Robert Walker. He's a minimum security prisoner here at Donovan State Prison, and we're broadcasting from inside Donovan State Prison in San Diego County. Robert, you know, a lot has been made on the outside about, you know, how medical care is in state prisons. Have you ever had any medical care here?
WALKER: I have medical care right now like when I caught this new term right now, I was surprised to be diagnosed with Type II diabetes. And, you know, and then I'm 54 now, you know, and so at then 51, I was saying, you know, and then I went to the hospital one day down off from county jail and then they took my blood and found out that I'm Type II diabetes. And so I've been – I got another whole lot of changes that I got to make, you know, within my life, you know, within myself to take care of myself, you know.
CAVANAUGH: And so are – do you have to inject yourself with the insulin or…
WALKER: No.
CAVANAUGH: …can you just control it with your diet?
WALKER: I hate needles. So I could – I take my pills and I make sure that I don't get on that needle.
CAVANAUGH: What is the best thing, Robert, that you do in here in a week? What do you look forward to doing?
WALKER: Going to work every week, every Monday.
WALKER: To get – to get off the yard, I will say, you know, to have my solitude, you know, to, you know, to change my life, you know. I guess I said it right, you know.
CAVANAUGH: Now you have been, you know, sort of doing time on and off since the '70s. How has prison changed during that time? A lot more people here?
WALKER: A lot more people. Overcrowded people, you know. California, you know, I don't understand it but, you know, like I say, you do the crime, do the time. But, you know, it is overcrowded, you know, and it seem like they just about the money now. You know, that's what I'm saying. You know, it's just all about the money. Long as you can house a inmate and get paid some amount of money from a year and everything, you know, it's all good.
CAVANAUGH: Umm-hmm.
WALKER: They keep job security for some of the staffs, you know, it's good job security. Good benefits from it, I would say, you know.
CAVANAUGH: Now when you get out of here in a year's time, do you know what you're going to be doing? Are you going to go back to cosmetology?
WALKER: Yeah. I'm going to go back to cosmetology, I'm going to try to get back into making teeth, you know, dental technicians. You know, I know how to do that, too. You know, and I'm going to pick up where I left off at.
CAVANAUGH: Well, I have to thank you for talking with us today. Thanks, so much.
WALKER: You're welcome, you know, thank you for calling me.
CAVANAUGH: I'm Maureen Cavanaugh, and you're listening to These Days on KPBS. We've traveled from the administration area at Donovan State Prison into the Level 4 area of the prison for our next interview. Inmate Terry Campbell has joined us, and I want to welcome you and thank you for being on this program.
TERRY CAMPBELL (Level 4 Inmate): Thank you for allowing me to speak.
CAVANAUGH: Well, you know, people on the outside hardly ever hear what it's like in prison from the prisoners themselves, so that's why we are having this conversation with you right now. And I'd like you to tell us – First of all, you are a Level 4 prisoner.
CAMPBELL: Yes, I am.
CAVANAUGH: And what is the offense that you committed to get inside?
CAMPBELL: Murder.
CAVANAUGH: And h…
CAMPBELL: First degree murder.
CAVANAUGH: And how long ago was that?
CAMPBELL: 44 years and 2 months ago.
CAVANAUGH: Have you been in this facility for that length of time?
CAMPBELL: No, I have not. No, I came here from a Level 3 to a Level 4.
CAVANAUGH: And what was your original sentence?
CAMPBELL: It was 7 to life, 7 years to life. I became eligible for parole after 7 years of a life sentence. But then when I first came prison, I got in trouble. I got two more life sentences for killing two other inmates. And I became eligible for parole eventually in 1979.
CAVANAUGH: Terry, what is your day like here? When do you get up?
CAMPBELL: We get up about 6:00, 6:30. We start feeding by – on a rotation basis, the units, the housing units. They're usually finished with breakfast between 8:00 and 8:30 then we have program which consists of yard and/or day room activities. We also have inmates that go to work every day in PIA or other support service jobs.
CAVANAUGH: Do you work?
CAMPBELL: Yes…
CAVANAUGH: What do…
CAMPBELL: …I work for the captain. I'm the special purchase clerk/hobby craft clerk. And I work usually from about eight in the morning until about 8:30 at night.
CAVANAUGH: And what about any special amenities? Are there any – people on the outside might think that everybody has a TV in their cell or things of that nature. What – Describe to us the area in which you live.
CAMPBELL: All right. I live in a housing unit – in a housing unit that consists of 100 cells housing 200 inmates. There are two sides – or two sides to the day room, one on each side of the gun, the control booth gun. And there's a – there is a TV on each side. Inmates have personal TVs, personal radios, personal property in their cells but if they don't have family to provide that for them they have to work at a prison job where they make very little money every month, ranging anywhere from $7.00 to maybe $130 if you work in a really good job like inmate day labor or PIA as a lead man. Most inmates do not work in those positions, they do not have the skill level and they don't have – the jobs are not available.
CAVANAUGH: You mentioned something called the gun area, what is that?
CAMPBELL: That's a sally port control booth area where they control all the entry into and out of a housing unit. They also have weapons up there that are used to quell disturbances when they have them.
CAVANAUGH: How would you characterize most of the people that you interact with here on – in the Level 4 area of Donovan? The other prisoners.
CAMPBELL: Well, you have a conglomerate of different types, different personalities. You have inmates that are mentally ill here. You have inmates who are, you know, doing life without the possibility of parole. You have inmates who have been eligible for parole for a long time. You have short term inmates. Even on this Level 4 yard, you have Level 3 inmates and sometimes Level 2, but they try to get them transferred out of here as quickly as possible. But I would characterize – You know, you have different categories of prisoners. You have short term prisoners and then you have long term prisoners and then you have prisoners who are never going to get out of prison in this lifetime and, unfortunately, I fall into that latter category.
CAVANAUGH: You have been in this prison for a very long time and I'm wondering, how has it changed since you've been here?
CAMPBELL: It's changed radically. This prison or this prison system. I'd like to say this prison system because I spent my first 35 years in northern prisons. As a whole, prisons are fluid. They change. The system is fluid. It changes. It's moved like – it's moved from fairly liberal in the '70s and the '80s to more restrictive now, and I think that has a lot to do with gang inmates, you know, gang related inmates.
CAVANAUGH: How is it more restrictive for your daily life?
CAMPBELL: It's more restrictive because if you came on the yard, you saw all the fencing. You can only go on one side of the yard. Your access to, say, laundry and to canteen and to other activities are severely limited because of the number of inmates. You've got to remember, we're way above designed capacity here. So – And, unfortunately, as they increase the number of inmates, they don't increase the support services for those additional inmates, so it takes away and you have – fortunately, we don't have beds in the day room like they do on Facility 1, but, you know, it severely limits the amount of phone time that you get and the other activities, the support services, that we rely on, you know, to live our daily lives in here.
CAVANAUGH: Are you ever afraid in here?
CAMPBELL: Yeah, sometimes.
CAVANAUGH: Of what?
CAMPBELL: Of being assaulted, dying here. You know, it's a constant risk. You know, like I mentioned earlier, we have mentally ill inmates on this yard, you know, people that are not altogether there. And we have some inmates that are doing life without the possibility of ever getting out. So, you know, and then we just have inmates who have a bad day. So you can't get away. You can't go away. You can't move from your current home. You can't, you know, you can't go across town. You're here. You see the same people every day, day in and day out. So, for a lot of inmates, I would imagine that constant fear is an everyday thing that they have to deal with.
CAVANAUGH: Would you say, in a sense, since you've been here for such a long time, you've acclimated yourself to this life?
CAMPBELL: Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's a process like anything else. It took me a long time when I came to prison to even realize what a life sentence in prison meant. And so you become accustomed to it. You become institutionalized, to use a term. And so, yes, I've become institutionalized. And a lot of people that leave prison, even guys that are only here for a few years or ten years or whatever, you know, it's not like you can get out of prison and suddenly, you know, you're used to being out and you can be a citizen, functioning normally in a normal society. It's going to be a process getting out, too, because a lot of parolees, unfortunately, when they leave prison, they apply in-prison solutions to out-of-prison problems and it just doesn't work out and it usually leads to reincarceration so…
CAVANAUGH: Thank you so much for speaking with us today. I really appreciate it.
CAMPBELL: You're welcome.
CAVANAUGH: Our special broadcast recorded inside Donovan State Prison continues after this short break. You're listening to These Days on KPBS.
CAVANAUGH: I'm Maureen Cavanaugh, and you're listening to These Days on KPBS. At Donovan State Prison in southern San Diego County, prisoners know that daily life for them is a lot different than for people on the outside. It's not just the fact that they can't leave, it's the fact that every aspect of their lives from their meals to their clothes to the time they get up in the morning is controlled by someone else. And their lives are also controlled by another factor, the color of their skin. California prisons allow prisoners to segregate according to race and many claim that has increased the presence of race-based gangs within prison walls. As we continue our program from inside Donovan State Prison, we'll talk about gangs in state prisons, how powerful they are, how dangerous, and how they are controlled. I'd like to welcome my guest, Assistant Institutional Gang Investigator William Edrozo. And welcome to the program. Thank you so much for being here.
WILLIAM EDROZO (Assistant Institutional Gang Investigator, Donovan State Correctional Facility): Thank you for having me.
CAVANAUGH: I'm going to call you Officer Edrozo for most of the rest of our talk, if that's okay with you.
EDROZO: That's okay.
CAVANAUGH: Okay. How long have you worked here at Donovan State Prison?
EDROZO: I've been here for ten years, going on ten years now.
CAVANAUGH: And what is your main focus? I think probably your title gives it away but tell us, your main focus is on prison gangs but what is your job exactly?
EDROZO: My job is to gather intelligence, gang intelligence, and to document gang activity and to validate certain individuals that are promoting prison gang activity out there.
CAVANAUGH: About how many gangs are there in Donovan?
EDROZO: Hmm, I would say roughly – I'd say about 45 or more different gangs out there. And that's talking disruptive groups because there's a difference. You have prison gangs, which we have 7 that are identified by the state of California and then we have disruptive groups which are street gangs.
CAVANAUGH: I want you to tell me more about that difference. Describe some of the gangs for us in the category of disruptive gangs.
EDROZO: Okay, disruptive gangs, there would – disruptive gangs would be more like your street gangs. For instance, with the Hispanics it would be Otay, Barrio Chula Vista, Logan Heights, Logan Red Steps, Shelltown. With your black gangs, it would be Neighborhood Crips, West Coast Crips, Skyline, 5/9 Brim, Lincoln Park. With your white gangs, it would be like your East County Crew, the Chosen Folk, United Society of Aryan Skins, San Diego Skinheads. And then you get into your Asian gangs, which would be your Oriental Killer Boys or Tiny Oriental Crips.
CAVANAUGH: So it doesn't sound like the gang members here in Donovan as inmates are just from San Diego County.
EDROZO: They're from all over. We get them from Los Angeles and Imperial County.
CAVANAUGH: And do certain gangs specialize in certain kind of crimes?
EDROZO: At one point, I would say that they did but now it's pretty much all the gangs are all into the same activity, committing the same crimes out there.
CAVANAUGH: You know so much about this, Officer Edrozo, can you profile a large gang that's located in San Diego County for us and perhaps tell us about their activity and their membership?
EDROZO: I can give you one particular is Otay, which is actually in Chula Vista. Roughly, I would say there's probably about 300 members are part of that gang. And they're out there committing – You know, their main source of income is through sale of drugs. And other than that, it's robberies, home invasions, car thefts. One big thing that a lot of these gangs are getting into is identity theft and that's a big moneymaker for them.
CAVANAUGH: So when they wind up here in Donovan State Prison, you specifically call them disruptive gangs. How do they disrupt things here inside the prison?
EDROZO: Well, we call them a disruptive group because that's what we consider a street gang.
EDROZO: Once they come into a prison setting and they're promoting gang activity, now they're promoting gang activity on behalf of a prison gang. And for the…
CAVANAUGH: And – go ahead.
EDROZO: Excuse me. I'm sorry. You know, for the Hispanics, that gang would be the Mexican Mafia.
CAVANAUGH: So the gangs recruit in here.
EDROZO: The prison gangs do, yes.
CAVANAUGH: The prison gangs. Now let me get clear on that. When someone is taken in, when a prisoner is taken in, they're basically allowed to segregate according to their race and where – which gang they're going to affiliate with?
EDROZO: Well, we don't segregate – We don't allow them to segregate. They segregate themselves.
CAVANAUGH: They segregate themselves.
EDROZO: Yes. And it's part of – it's based on their politics.
CAVANAUGH: And does that, though, do you think encourage gang membership?
EDROZO: Yes. Yes, it does.
CAVANAUGH: Is it possible to survive in prison if you're not in a gang?
EDROZO: You know, you can survive but there's consequences you're going to have to pay in the long run. You know, you can come into prison not belonging to a gang but you're going to – in order to stay on the yard, you're going to have to pay somebody, either canteen or send money to somewhere down the road. And you might even be asked to basically what we call take care of business. You might be asked to commit an assault or to take drugs back to another housing unit. So you're going to basically what we call put in work.
CAVANAUGH: So what does being in a gang do for an inmate?
EDROZO: It – In prison, it makes life easier. It makes life more comfortable in a prison setting because you're protected. If you need things, you can go to your fellow inmates and they'll take care of you if you're, you know, short on canteen, short on food, coffee, if you're out there and you have a problem with another race, they're going to protect you. So it just makes life more comfortable for you.
CAVANAUGH: Outside of any criminal activity that might actually take place within the prisons that you have to deal with when that comes up, when it deals with gangs, do the gangs actually make things run a little bit more smoothly in prison?
EDROZO: They can at times.
CAVANAUGH: How so?
EDROZO: Because they're – within their politics, it's – you don't want to draw – they don't want to draw attention to their particular race so they follow rules that, you know, are given or given direct orders by cops. You know, when it's time to lock up, they lock up and in a timely manner. They're not running around their tiers, not a bunch of chaos. They keep things in order.
CAVANAUGH: Now when we on the outside, when we hear about some sort of problem within a prison, maybe a riot, we often hear that it has to do with rival gangs. And I'm wondering, how dangerous is that for guards, for officers? Do you often have to intervene in gang disputes?
EDROZO: Yes, we do, a lot. And it's part of our job on a daily basis. You know, every time you go out to the yard, there's always gang activity going on. There's always racial tension. And you always got to keep your eyes, especially in my job, I always have to know who's at war. You know, one day are the Hispanics at war with the blacks? Are they at war with the whites? Or vice versa? So it is, it is very dangerous. And we do try to get in there and communicate with them. That's the biggest part of our job, is communication.
CAVANAUGH: And what is your job actually like? Do you go out in the yard? I mean where do you basically police the gang activity?
EDROZO: Everywhere in the institution.
CAVANAUGH: Everywhere.
EDROZO: Yeah. I go over an institution. When guys come in off the bus, I'm out there looking at the guys coming off the bus, what type of tattoos they have. Tattoos that they have tells a lot. It tells me a lot about that certain individual. And once I identify a guy and he's showing a lot of tattoos, he's done a lot of time, that's someone that I'm going to pay a little bit more interest in because someone like that is promoting that prison gang activity.
CAVANAUGH: I'm speaking with Assistant Institutional Gang Investigator William Edrozo. We're talking – We are broadcasting from Donovan State Prison on These Days on KPBS. And I want to ask you about does anybody ever drop out of a gang in prison?
EDROZO: Yes, they do.
CAVANAUGH: And what is that like?
EDROZO: It – The process basically, in order for people to become a dropout, first they have to be validated as a prison gang member or an associate. Once they drop out, they have to go through what we call an IYP, an integrated yard program. And what that does is, that gets them ready for an SOY yard because…
CAVANAUGH: What's an SOY yard?
EDROZO: A sensitive needs yard.
CAVANAUGH: Okay.
EDROZO: That's a protective custody yard because now you're going to be housed with child molesters, rapists, other gang dropouts, your enemies. And you have to be able to prove to the state or to the Department of Corrections that, you know, you dropped that gang lifestyle. Because what people don't really understand about gangs is it actually is a lifestyle. It's a way of life for them. And they have to lose that mentality once they drop out of that gang because once you drop out of a gang, you're actually looked upon from your former gang members as like a child molester or a rapist. You're like the lowest of the low. And they have to prove to us that they're willing to drop that mentality and they can go cell up with another race or live with another race or live with an enemy that would be like, for instance, you know, right now if I were to house a Mexican and a black, as soon as that door would close, there would be a fight on site. Now when you go to SOY, all those racial politics are out the door. You should be able to cell up with a black, a white, you know, an Asian, because now you're on the same level as them.
CAVANAUGH: Now, Officer Edrozo, you are heavily uniformed. Are you wearing a stab vest?
EDROZO: Yes.
CAVANAUGH: Do you normally do that?
EDROZO: Yes. I wear one every day but actually mine's a dual vest. I have ballistic and stab-proof.
CAVANAUGH: And so I guess this is a rather silly question to follow up but how dangerous is your job?
EDROZO: It's very dangerous because I'm documenting the worst of the worst. And I'm the one that actually changes their life within the prison setting. You know, one day a certain individual could be walking on the yard getting four or five hours of yard a day and once I conduct my investigation, now he's locked down in a cell 23 hours a day. Gets off for yard, you know, one hour a day or a shower. So I changed his way of living within a prison setting.
CAVANAUGH: We hear a lot on the outside about people and inmates holding grudges and getting revenge and even sometimes on officers. Does that happen?
EDROZO: Yes, you hear about it. But the biggest thing, the main thing in prison is respect, okay? As long as you show these guys respect and you don't look at them as a criminal, you look at them as a man—he's another man sitting across from you—you treat them with that respect, you're going to get that respect back. A lot of these guys do understand that it's just my job. You know, that was their job, what they were doing, they just got caught. It's my job to document and validate them as a prison gang member. And once they demonstrate that, then I'm going to do my job.
CAVANAUGH: Do you ever find that gang – people who were in gangs before they came to prison are actually still running some criminal activities on the outside? Does that ever happen?
EDROZO: Yeah, it does. It does in some cases. Very rare, but, yeah, they do. You know, once you join a gang and you're going to stay active, you're always going to have that mentality so you're always going to find the easy way of making money. And…
CAVANAUGH: And so I wonder if that – there's anything that you could change about the fact that the overcrowded prisons in California are kind of riddled with these really dangerous gangs. Is there – Do you see any way out of that?
EDROZO: No. I mean, it's been around forever and it's going to be around. You know, it's – all you can do is just do your job and be the best at it, you know, and try to make a difference. But it's – you gotta understand, like I said, it's a lifestyle. You know, a lot of these kids grow up in the neighborhoods, their dad's already in prison, and that's all they know. And a lot of these kids, these young kids, they want to become, you know, prison gang members because from what they understand is that's how they're going to earn their respect from their neighborhoods. So it's just a – it's a cycle. It's just – it's going to continue. So…
CAVANAUGH: Officer Edrozo, thank you so much for speaking with us today.
EDROZO: You're welcome.
CAVANAUGH: You've been listening to a special These Days program recorded entirely inside Donovan State Prison. Stay with us for hour two of the show coming up in just a few minutes here on KPBS.
Public SafetyCalifornia
Maureen Cavanaugh
Maureen Cavanaugh has been a familiar voice for KPBS listeners for more than 15 years, serving in a variety of capacities including announcer, host, and producer. As host of KPBS Midday Edition, Maureen has interviewed a wide range of notables, such as comedienne Sandra Bernhardt, actor John Lequizamo, author Chuck Palahniuk, composer Marvin Hamlisch, artist Robert Irwin, and designer Zandra Rhodes. But of all the interviews Maureen has conducted, her most special was with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Before joining KPBS in 1997, she worked as a news anchor for KSDO and KOGO News Radio in San Diego. While working for commercial radio stations in San Diego and in Salt Lake City, Utah, Maureen reported on both hard news and lifestyle features. Maureen has received three "Golden Mike" awards from the Radio and TV News Association of Southern California for economic reporting and breaking news. She has also received a "Best of Show" and "Best Radio Newscast" awards from the San Diego Press Club and the "Flo" Award from Public Radio Program Directors Association for Best Public Radio Announcer in a large market. Maureen is a native of Queens, New York, but after more than 20 years in San Diego she feels she qualifies as a real Southern Californian.
See stories by Maureen Cavanaugh
Pat Finn
Pat Finn previously served as a producer for KPBS Midday Edition and KPBS Evening Edition. Finn began her career in broadcasting at KTLA and KCET in Los Angeles. In 1979 she became KPBS' Public Information Director, then Director of Advertising and Promotion, Program Director, and Director of Broadcasting. She oversaw the station's local and national productions, including the one-hour documentary Los Romeros: The Royal Family of the Guitar, and Child Protective Services, a one-hour look inside the San Diego County agency responsible for the welfare of at risk children. Both programs also aired on public television stations nationwide. Finn has earned honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
See stories by Pat Finn


text:
Louis Klemantaski (* 12. Februar 1907 in Harbin; † 24. Juni 2001) war ein britischer Fotograf und Automobilrennfahrer.

Klemantaski wuchs als Sohn wohlhabender Eltern in der Mandschurei auf. Seine Mutter war Russin und sein Vater Niederländer mit polnischen Wurzeln, der in Hull seine Jugend verbracht hatte. Seine Eltern zogen nach Asien und kamen mit dem Import von Overland-Fahrzeugen in die Mandschurei zu Wohlstand. Im Alter von acht Jahren kam Klemantaski nach Europa, um seine Schulausbildung zu beginnen und lernte im selben Alter Autofahren und Fotografieren. Ende der 1920er Jahre begann er in der britischen Rennsportszene zu arbeiten. Er war Mechaniker bei Singer und begann selbst Autorennen zu fahren. Bis Anfang der 1930er-Jahre bestritt er Sportwagenrennen, ehe seine Rennkarriere nach einem schweren Unfall 1933 ein Ende fand. Dabei trug er eine Beinverletzung davon, die ihn an weiteren Renneinsätzen hinderte.

Daraufhin verlegte er sich ganz auf die Fotografie und wurde zu einem der innovativsten Motorsport-Fotografen vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Er folgte dem Rennzirkus durch ganz Europa und fotografierte jedes Wochenende bei einem anderen Rennen. Er versuchte so nahe wie nur möglich an den fahrenden Rennwagen heranzukommen und schuf dabei eine Vielzahl an Aufnahmen.

Im Zweiten Weltkrieg diente er in einer britischen Spezialeinheit, die aus der Luft die Schäden, die durch Fliegerbomben ausgelöst wurden, fotografisch festhielt.

Nach dem Krieg arbeitete er als Porträt-Fotograf und schuf Meisterwerke von Margot Fonteyn und Igor Stravinsky. Aber seine Leidenschaft für den Motorsport ließ ihn nicht los und er begann wieder in der Szene zu fotografieren. Seine hervorragenden Arbeiten machten ihn zu einem vermögenden Mann, da von immer mehr Teambesitzern ganze Fotobücher bei ihm in Auftrag gegeben wurden.

In den 1950er-Jahren wurde er zu einem begehrten Beifahrer, der auch während der Fahrten Fotos schoss. Er war dreimal bei der Rallye Monte Carlo am Start und war 1956 und 1957 der Beifahrer von Peter Collins bei der Mille Miglia. 1956 errang das Duo den zweiten Platz und ein Jahr später verhinderte  ein technischer Defekt den Sieg. Bereits 1953 hatte er als Beifahrer von Reg Parnell auf einem Aston Martin DB3 den fünften Platz erreicht.

Klemantaski war ein großer Weinkenner und Feinschmecker, der bei jedem großen Rennen sein Lieblingsrestaurant hatte. 1997 war er Ehrengast der Scuderia Ferrari bei der Mille Miglia, die in den 1990er-Jahren als Veranstaltung für historische Rennfahrzeuge wiederbelebt wurde. Die letzten Jahre seines Lebens verbrachte er mit seiner Frau in der kleinen Ortschaft Coombe Hay, in der Nähe von Bath.

Weblinks

 Die Klemantaski-Collection

Fotograf (Vereinigtes Königreich)
Rennfahrer (Vereinigtes Königreich)
Brite
Geboren 1907
Gestorben 2001
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Custom built ranch on a private, almost 2 acre lot. Great for entertaining. Open kitchen w/ cathedral ceiling & wood burning fireplace that walks out to huge deck. Main floor laundry. Finished LL w/ full bath & walkout. Andersen windows. Newer roof. New entry door. Exterior trim freshly painted. Move-in ready. Hurry!
Directions Sheed Rd To Gaines Rd To Left On Springdale, Or Harrison Ave To Springdale.


When it comes to Vitamin C, oranges steal the spotlight. But did you know there's a superfood that offers up to 10 times more of this important vitamin than citrus fruit?
Say hello to Baobab, the superfood that contains an astonishing amount of Vitamin C.
You could be forgiven for never having heard of Baobab. This superfood has only recently made its way to the western world from Africa, where it's been enjoyed for thousands of years.
In its fresh form, Baobab is powdery with a sweet and tangy taste. Encased in huge greenish pods, the fruit is often eaten in those parts of Madagascar, Africa and Australia where the Baobab tree can be found.
The huge trees are pretty special. With massive trunks and tall, root-like branches, the Baobab tree can grow up to 50 feet tall. This makes it an important source of food, water and even shelter for local people.
You may already know that it's a good idea to increase your Vitamin C intake when you feel a cold coming on. But do you know why? Vitamin C works to treat colds by facilitating the absorption of iron, and strengthening the body's resistance to infection.
So if you feel a cold coming on, reaching for the Baobab might just be the best way to stop that sniffle in its tracks. Combine that with the amazing flu-busting potential of Ginger, and you might just have the perfect superfood combination this winter.
After strenuous exercise, it's really important to help promote recovery with good pre- and post-workout nutrition. That's where the Vitamin C found in Baobab can help. Multiple studies suggest that Vitamin C supplementation before exercise can reduce muscle soreness as well as oxidative stress, helping to prevent any long-term damage.
If you're in need of a mood-booster from time to time, it might be a good idea to add Baobab to your diet. Research suggests that Vitamin C can help to restore emotional balance, with the mood of those patients taking Vitamin C having improved markedly in the results of one particular study.
Vitamin C helps boost immunity, recovery, and even mood, so it makes sense to incorporate more of it into your everyday life. Luckily Baobab offers an easy way to do just that. Available as an organic supplement, this superfood really can help you tap into some of the incredible health benefits offered by Vitamin C.


As the owner of a small business, you're obviously strapped for time. If you can't keep up with all the changes and new products Google has for both users and businesses, you're not alone.
Unless you live in one of the test areas, it's possible you don't know about a service Google has been slowly expanding and beta testing in a few select markets, called Google Home Services.
Right now Google only offers the program in a few markets, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Stockton, Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. But Google has plans to further expand the program later in 2017, but it's not clear where that will be. But no matter where or when Google next introduces its Google Home Services program, as a small business owner, you need to know if this latest Google product might be right for your business.
What is Google Home Services exactly?
But what is Google Home Services exactly and what does it mean for you, the small business owner who's already bombarded with sales calls from marketing companies trying to get you to purchase more ad space on Google, Facebook and other channels, not to mention optimize your SEO (whatever that means – it stands for Search Engine Optimization by the way. I know, why can't marketers just say so)?
And you probably already have Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns and/or local search ad campaigns running to attract more customers in your local area, so why should you pay for yet another advertising service from Google?
Because you're busy running your business and this topic is already complex enough, for the sake of time, let's just compare PPC ads in Google AdWords and the new Google Home Service Ads.
It's aimed at small local businesses who provide services at or inside a customer's home. For example, if you're a plumber or you own an air conditioner repair business, your Home Service ad would be visible to potential customers searching for plumbers, or HVAC repair near me.
Google Home Service ads appear at the top of Google search results.
So what exactly does Google mean by top of the page? Do they mean directly under the PPC advertising (those are the listings with the tiny Ad logo at the top of Google search results)? No. Google Home Service ads appear above the PPC ads. To potential customers the Home Service listings don't look like ads. There is a tiny bit of text that reads "sponsored," in the top right corner above the three listings, but it's not obvious and I didn't notice it the first few times I looked at listings in one of the target areas.
That means your business can potentially be seen first in customer search results, and these are quality leads because they're customers in your area searching for the exact services your small business provides right now, not people who were on a competitor's page yesterday, or who are doing research for a school paper, or who bought a product from a big box hardware store that's related to the service you provide.
Home Service ads get you calls from local customers searching for the exact services your small, local business provides.
With Google Home Services, a potential customer searching for your services will see your Google Home Service listing at the top of the page, and click on it to see your business' Home Service Ad where they can choose to call your business or contact you by filling in their contact information. Your customer never leaves Google and your ad is reaching customers who have an immediate need for the services you provide. Google only charges you for the phone calls or contacts you receive from a customer clicking on the Home Services ad. So if a potential customer clicks on your Home Services ad, but doesn't contact you, Google doesn't charge you.
With Home Service ads, Google charges you per lead, not per click.
At this point you might be wondering what exactly the difference is between a Home Services ad and a Pay Per Click (PPC) Ad. Don't feel bad. It's confusing, partly because digital marketers are fond of jargon and partly because the number of paid advertising options has increased. Google alone has search ads, display ads, video ads, app ads, and now Google Home Service ads. But search ads, display ads, video ads, and app ads all fall into the Pay Per Click category.
A Pay Per Click (PPC) ad is charged exactly like it sounds. You pay Google when a customer goes to a landing page on your small business website by clicking on your ad in Google search results. They don't even have to contact or call you. With Home Service ads, Google charges you per lead, not per click.
With Pay Per Click (PPC) ads, Google charges you per click so you may be paying for clicks, not leads.
Where your Pay Per Click ad appears in Google search results depends on a couple factors including your maximum bid on the keywords and your ads quality score. The quality score is the metric Google uses to determine the relevancy of your ad to the searcher. A kind of invisible split second auction takes place every time a user searches for the keywords your ad is targeting, and when they visit other websites that are related to those keywords.
Depending on the type of small business you own, your ad could be competing against big businesses with huge advertising budgets. That's why some keywords are harder to rank for than others going on just the amount of money spent, but you might be able to compete with the big guns if your ad has the highest quality score in spite of being the lowest maximum bid.
PPC ads are partly based on how much money you can bid on specific keywords.
It's not impossible to run your own PPC campaigns, but as you can tell from this very condensed explanation, PPC strategy can get very complex quickly and when your budget is small, creating a high quality landing page, using the most relevant keywords, including testing different versions can get time consuming.
So if learning how to run your campaign and running it is time you don't have, then hiring somebody to run it for you is a good idea. Just make sure they're Google Partners and that they will give you a personalized campaign, not the same PPC packages they give everybody else, with the same strategy that's dependant on a package price and not your advertising budget and your specific business.
Home Service ads are based on your reputation, reliability, location and the services you provide.
Where Google displays your Home Service ad in users' search results does not depend on bids or competition based on how huge your advertising budget is. Google Home Service ads are based on your reputation, reliability, location, and the services you provide. Some of those criteria sound mighty subjective, but Google does have metrics it uses to determine your business's reputation and reliability.
Specifically how Google ranks where your business will appear in search results is determined by how close your business is to the potential customer, your business review score on Google, how many review scores individual customers have given you, how responsive you are to customers, the hours of your business and whether or not customers have filed serious or numerous complaints about your business with Google.
Google also has an additional feature called Google Guarantee that you can add to Google Home Services.
But hopefully they will decide to make this option available to more types of businesses once they officially launch the Home Service program.
A Google Guaranteed business is licensed, insured and has passed a pre-screening process that includes employee background checks.
So what is a Google guarantee and how does it work? In a nutshell, a Google guaranteed business is licensed, insured and has passed a screening process through Google's outside vendor at the business's expense, including a background check for the business owner and their employees.
If you pass Google's criteria for being guaranteed, then your Home Service Ad will display a logo that reads, "Google guaranteed" next to a green checkmark. When potential customers click on your Home Service Ad, the Google guaranteed section of your ad is expanded to display a brief explanation of what a Google guarantee means.
Google provides $2,000 in coverage for Google Guaranteed business jobs booked via a Home Service Ad.
Any business that has passed the additional requirements, Google will guarantee their work for up to $2,000. That means a dissatisfied customer can contact Google customer support and submit a claim. After that Google customer support will investigate the claim and make a decision on the claim.
The guarantee is only for jobs booked through a Google Home Service Ad. Any future work, unless the existing customer books through a Home Service Ad again, isn't covered by the guarantee.
A Google guarantee logo displayed on your Home Service Ad could increase your leads by as much as 1800%.
Ok so as a small business owner who provides in home services to local customers, once Google rolls out the Google Home Service program in your market area, would it have any value in growing your business?
Absolutely! In fact, according to this video by Mondovo, businesses participating in the beta version of Google Home Services that are Google guaranteed have seen up to an 1800% increase in leads as a result. That's because to customers, that green check mark and the Google name are strong indicators that your business is trustworthy and reliable. Essentially, your small business benefits from the power of the Google brand.
Non Google guaranteed businesses could disappear from Google search results entirely.
Conversely some businesses in the test market areas who aren't participating in the program, have seen their services disappear from Google search results altogether. That means if you're a small business who provides home services to local customers and you have more than a couple competitors, once Google expands its Home Services program to your area, in order to appear at the top of a potential customer's search results, you're going to have to opt into the Home Services program and take the extra steps to become Google guaranteed.
Your next question is probably if Google Home Service ads can replace your PPC Ads on Google. The answer is: It depends. Google Home Service ads target an extremely specific stage of your customer's buying journey, the immediate decision stage. They're customers who have an immediate need for your services, for example a homeowner with a burst pipe or a person who got locked out of their home.
PPC ads can target different stages of your customer's journey from awareness to decision, and usually are more geared towards customers looking for information on specific services who don't necessarily have an immediate need. It really depends on your business, the local area where you live and the type of competition in your area as well as your budget.
Can Home Service ads replace PPC ads? It depends on your business and your budget.
Some small businesses might not need PPC ads, and if your advertising budget is extremely limited, you might benefit more from investing in Google Home Service ads and foregoing PPC ads altogether. In my opinion, you could probably get away with focusing on Google Home Service ads and Google guarantee, plus your company website and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The bottom line is it's really too soon to tell exactly what Google Home Services will ultimately look like once Google offers it everywhere. Google is still beta testing and as they add new markets and new business categories, the program itself will ultimately evolve even more before the program is officially launched.
You can't afford to ignore the significant increase in growth that Google Home Service ads could mean for your small business.
However, given what we know already about the program, if you're a small business owner who provides in home services, you can't afford to ignore the significant increase in the growth of your business that adding Google Home Service ads to your small business marketing strategy could bring once Google introduces the program in your area.
We want to know what you think about this potential new Google service? Let us know in the comment section. Google Home Services is a new and evolving program. As we learn more, here at BizIQ, we'll inform you on how you can benefit from this service so watch this space for updates.
In the meantime if you have any questions about PPC advertising, small business websites, SEO or anything else related to growing your small business, don't hesitate to contact us today.


Bio: Guillaume Saint-Jacques received his PhD from MIT Sloan and specializes in economics of technology as well as inference on social networks.
At LinkedIn, he designs and implements experimental methodologies that the company uses to measure the network effects of new features and interventions.
Guillaume also focuses on the computational social science aspects of fairness and inequality research at LinkedIn.


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Groundhog Day 2015
Food Hazards in Animal Flesh and By-products from All-Creatures.org Vegan Health Articles
These are some of the reasons why we are vegans
From NotMilk.com
It has been a brutal winter for Punxsutawney Phil. The weather has been wonderful, but little snow means that Phil's been awake, and his handlers delight in feeding Phil ice cream, a not-so natural rodent food. Phil skipped his usual hibernation this year due to the mildest winter in memory.
Could an overweight Phil be due to the powerful growth factors in milk and dairy products? Groundhogs should not be eating a diet of bovine growth hormones and high calorie-containing saturated animal fat. Neither should humans, for that matter.
The 2015 New York version of Groundhog Day will differ from last year's in which Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped Staten Island Charlotte on her head killing the animal. New Yorkers suffered 6 additional months of hell after the mayor botched the traditional ceremony.
The January 7, 2015 issue of Medical Microbiology and Immunology describes a process by which experimental groundhogs are being injected with hepatitis B virus strains in order to come up with a vaccine to help infected humans. Ellie Barnes and her team of Oxford animal sadists have not witnessed such torture as when the New York Knicks played and lost a regular season game on January 15th (two weeks ago) by sixteen points in London. Whose idea was that to Schedule such a fiasco? Probably the same genius who invited de Blasio to a repeat performance this year in New York.
Hopefully, that is not what people witness today in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania where there is currently A mix of rain and snow.
As today's column is being composed, spectators standing in Gobblers Knob awaiting the appearance of a groundhog named Phil are trying to stay warm in 33 degree temperatures with wet snow and icy rain.
There will be light snow and Phil might not see his shadow, but that would mean winter is finally over. You couldn't tell by examining my New Jersey driveway.
Millions of people unable to attend today's ceremony can watch the best romantic comedy ever made. From Staten Island to Saddle Brook, from Oshkosh to Savannah, folks will be treated to the Groundhog Day film every 2.5 hours on the AMC channel beginning at 10 AM, EST. The movie is brilliantly entertaining. I may watch it more than once.
It has been a brutal winter for Punxsutawney Phil. The weather has been wonderful, but little snow means that Phil's been awake, and his handlers delight in feeding Phil ice cream, a not-so natural rodent food.
Two hours from now at approximately 7:20 AM, a groundhog will trek to Gobbler's Notch to make his official weather forecast. Today's celebration will mark the 128th consecutive year that Groundhog Day has been celebrated in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
Come sunshine, rain, or snow, the groundhog's keeper has assured us that their little rodent will see some sort of shadow due to his enormously fattened bulk, even though it's cloudy and snowing lightly in Punxsutawney as this message is being posted at about 3 AM.
The fix is in. They've been feeding him ice cream during the "off season". Phil skipped his usual hibernation this year due to the mildest winter in memory.
This past year, American consumers have been presented with the dairy industry argument that consuming dairy products helps people to lose weight, which makes absolutely no sense, but makes for great press by those whose job it is to deceive America into consuming milk.
On average, groundhogs weigh a little over five pounds when they emerge from hibernation in the spring. After a summer of eating, September weights can soar to ten pounds. The largest wild (free and un-caged) groundhog weighed in at fourteen pounds!
The bigger news has nothing to do with the weather. It's why Punxsutawney Phil has become the Holstein cow of groundhogs. He's the pig of little furry hibernators. What has Phil been munching on all winter while observing his dairy-based weight loss program? Ice cream! The root of our groundhog's obesity ain't roots. It's dairy!
Bill Deeley, the local funeral home director who emcees Punxsutawney's much-publicized Groundhog Day Festival and sees to Phil's needs 365 days out of the year, had this to say about Phil's diet: "He's naturally a vegetarian. But he loves ice cream and strawberry sundaes."
Phil, the ground-cow, weighs in at 15 pounds and measures 22 inches in length.
So...eyewitnesses will see Phil spring from his burrow and report that he did not see his own shadow. Winter is over for everybody except the Seattle Seahawks who managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the final play of yesterday's Super Bowl game. Easy on the ice cream, or you and Phil might look lousy in bathing suits next summer.
When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak anddark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.
- Weatherman Phil Connors, Groundhog Day
Return to Food Hazards in Animal Flesh and By-products
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News Corp., Not Wireless Generation, Is ALEC Education Member
Jason Tomassini
On Tuesday, the Center for Media and Democracy posted news that Wireless Generation, the educational software and assessment company, was a recently joined member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the controversial limited-government group that works to influence education policy across the country.
Turns out it's not.
"We have never been a member," a Wireless Generation spokeswoman told me.
But News Corporation, the global media conglomerate that owns Wireless Generation, is a member of ALEC, according to Adam Peshek, the director of ALEC's education task force. News Corp. is also a member of ALEC's task force on communications and technology, Peshek said.
It's somewhat unclear how Wireless Generation, and not News Corp., ended up on an agenda for a May 11 meeting of the education task force in Charlotte.
The document was prepared prior to Peshek's appointment as the task force director to replace his predecessor David Myslinski.
"I don't know how they got on there," Peshek said. News Corp. declined to comment on its membership.
Reached by phone, Myslinski, who resigned as education task force director in March, said that Wireless Generation used to be a member of ALEC but left the organization prior to its purchase by News Corp. When News Corp. joined ALEC, Wireless's past connection could have led to the mistake on the agenda, he said. Joan Lebow, the Wireless Generation spokeswoman, originally said the company had never been a member but later clarified that it had, from 2007 to 2009.
ALEC's education task force consists of lawmakers and both for-profit and non-profit companies and organizations involved in education. Here's how my colleague, Andrew Ujifusa, described the group in a recent story.
The group is split into task forces co-chaired by public- and private-sector representatives that develop model legislation.
Those task forces approve model legislation for lawmakers to use as they see fit in their states. The task forces meet as one, but the public-sector and private-sector members each have separate vote tallies for resolutions and model legislation.
Some of that legislation promotes the initiation of private school vouchers, the expansion of virtual schools, and "parent trigger" laws that allow parents to push for changes in management or a charter school conversion for their children's schools. In recent months, ALEC came under fire for helping to draft Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law that is being used as a defense by George Zimmerman, the man accused of killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., in February. Since, ALEC shuttered the public safety and elections task force that drafted the bill.
Peshek said News Corp. joined both task forces in January.
While groups like the Center for Media and Democracy, and Common Cause, have worked to publicize ALEC's practices, News Corp.'s membership has not yet been made public. Whether there is something inherently wrong with a company being an ALEC member probably depends on your political views. As Peshek wrote in a recent letter to Education Week, "there are dozens of organizations on both sides of the political spectrum that have spent decades promoting the policies we support." Certainly, News Corp. has supported many other political causes.
But News Corp.'s membership is notable because of its short history in education and its anticipated and obscured expectations.
After purchasing Wireless Generation in 2010 and hiring former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein to run its new education division last year, News Corp.'s venture into education has stalled. In a recent article, The New York Times suggested the phone-hacking scandal embroiling the company is occupying Klein's time, but that he will soon be shifting his focus back to education. In a live interview at The Atlantic's Technologies in Education Forum Tuesday, Klein spoke about his vision for the future of technology in education, but not about his company's future in providing that technology.
Klein did, however, take some shots at the political forces he says prevent innovation in the classroom. Investing school budgets in personnel instead of technology, continuing to support seat-time requirements, and allocating mandatory textbook budgets are all trends stifling education's progression, he said.
Eventually, he envisions a classroom where each student has a personalized lesson plan (School of One, anyone?) and teachers get real-time data on student performance (Wireless Generation, anyone?). (This also aligns with the the new guidelines announced Tuesday for the $400 million Race to the Top district competition, which highlight "personalized learning.")
Perhaps News Corp.'s involvement in ALEC is the next step to knocking down those political barriers, but the distinction between Wireless Generation and News Corp. as ALEC members is important to determining which barriers those may be.
For instance, ALEC is considering whether or not to oppose the Common Core State Standards, as an overreach of the federal government. In its recent acquisition of Intel-Assess, an assessment content company, Wireless Generation said it would better position the company to provide services to schools aligned with those standards.
Other education task force members include Dell Inc., K12 Inc., and Connections Academy, whose co-founder and executive vice president, Mickey Revenaugh, is the private-sector chairwoman for the education task force. Since ALEC's involvement in "Stand Your Ground" became public, many education companies have distanced themselves from the group.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said it will not provide future funds to the group but would not stop a $376,000 grant to the group for legislators.
National Association of Charter School Authorizers said it would not renew its ALEC membership.
Also on Tuesday, the Lumina Foundation, which focuses on higher education achievement, said it is no longer an ALEC member. The group awarded two grants to ALEC totaling $595,000.
Scantron, the testing company, decided last year not to renew its membership in ALEC after a change in leadership, a company spokeswoman said.
(The Gates and Lumina foundations also provide grant support for Education Week. Wireless Generation's co-founder and chief executive officer, Larry Berger, serves on the board of trustees of Editorial Projects in Education, the nonprofit corporation that publishes Education Week.)
E-mail jtomassini@epe.org
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6 thoughts on "News Corp., Not Wireless Generation, Is ALEC Education Member"
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The skeletons were discovered beneath the Stavanger Cathedral in 1968 and are now being re-examined. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Dundak)
The Christians beneath the cathedral
The Norwegian city Stavanger's known history commences with the building of its cathedral nearly 900 years ago. Recent analyses of skeletons indicate that several generations of Christians lived there prior to that.
Bjørnar Kjensli
saturday 12. november 2011 - 05:00
In historical accounts the history of Stavanger, Norway's third largest city, starts around 1125, when construction work on the city's cathedral commenced. No findings have indicated any urban centre pre-dating the church.
But a number of skeletons uncovered beneath the cathedral in 1968 indicate that several generations of Christians lived in Stavanger before the cathedral was erected.
Preliminary studies of these human remains indicate that they stem from young children as well as adults.
Sean Dexter Denham holds up a box of unmatched bone fragments. (Photo: Bjørnar Kjensli)
A total of 31 skeletons were found beneath the cathedral. In the late 1960s the only place in Norway that could house such discoveries was the Department of Anatomy at the University of Oslo.
Around 1970 the bones were returned to Stavanger but they were in rather poor condition. They had all been jumbled together into one large crate. Efforts started last year to reassemble them.
From the year 1000
Paula Utigard Sandvik at the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger, where the skeletons are now being correctly assembled and analysed. (Photo: Bjørnar Kjensli)
Sean Dexter Denham is an osteoarchaeologist at the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger. He's an expert at identifying skeletal remains and is systematically working his way through the large crate and assembling the bones into complete skeletons.
"We know that at least 20 skeletons were returned to us from Oslo, but we don't really know whether we have bones from all 31."
He is studying the cathedral skeletons with the help of techniques that have also been used in work at sites of mass graves in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia.
Samples have been sent off for both C-14 and AMS radiocarbon dating, and these show that the skeletons are from the late Viking era and early Middle Ages, or around the year 1000.
Historian Geir Atle Ersland says there are almost no written records mentioning Stavanger prior to decades into the 1200s. (Photo: University of Bergen)
Unfortunately the dating methods are not accurate enough to establish an exact year, but as more and more samples are taken the easier it is to estimate the age of the bones, and Denham is planning to do just that.
"We know the skeletons are older than the cathedral, but we don't know exactly how much older. This is a big question. It's a matter of who it was who lived here in this city."
Conducting DNA analyses
Paula Utigard Sandvik is an associate professor and biologist at the museum and she is working with Denham on the skeletons and the rest of the finds buried beneath the cathedral.
She praises the report made when the skeletons were found in 1968. The report and later studies confirm that the corpses had been placed in coffins and buried.
The corpses were lined along a perfect east-west axis, they had not been burned and no funerary relics have been found in their vicinity. Everything points toward Christian funerals.
Sandvik says it is odd that such a fine building was erected without evidence of it being pre-dated by an urban Christian settlement.
"In other Norwegian medieval towns we find traces of urban regulation, street structures and remains of houses. According to the way they were organised we can determine whether the site was a town or a large farm complex. Such evidence is almost totally lacking for Stavanger prior to around the year 1000."
She says that construction of cathedrals was often politically motivated and that the Stavanger Cathedral could have been erected when the already married Sigurd the Crusader couldn't persuade any bishops to wed him to his second wife.
Sigurd I Magnusson Jorsalfare, as he is known in Norwegian, was king of Norway from 1123 until his death in Oslo in 1130.
"In the Catholic Church it was inconceivable to be divorced and have two wives but he attempted to get Norwegian bishops to bend the rules. He found one who was willing in Stavanger but it cost him a tidy sum that was sufficient to start the building of the cathedral. Jorsalfare got his new wife, and Stavanger became a cathedral city."
Sandvik says she is in the process of starting isotope analyses of the skeletons to see whether they shared a common diet, and hopefully conduct DNA analyses to find out if they were related.
Sandvik and Denham haven't published any of their studies of the skeletons but both say they have several studies planned.
"We know so little"
Geir Atle Ersland is an associate professor in history at the University of Bergen who is currently working on the first volume of a new edition of Stavanger's history, which starts around the time of the cathedral construction.
"We know nearly nothing about Stavanger's history prior to the start of construction, and apart from archaeological finds there is nothing to help us out."
In addition to the skeletons, a few postholes, a layer of charcoal and a stone cross are among the most important finds providing a look into this puzzling period.
The cross, which used to stand a little distance from the cathedral, is now considered to be the country's oldest historic national monument, and was placed in memory of Erling Skjalgsson.
The chieftain Skjalgsson was one of decentralized Norway's most powerful men around the first millennium.
Many historians think the placement of the memorial cross indicates that there was a town or community where Stavanger is now.
But the cross has been in a museum since the 1800s and even though it was found in the middle of Stavanger, researchers cannot say for certain whether this is where it originally stood.
"The first time the stone cross was mentioned in written sources was in 1726. Another concern is that it's hard to make any direct correlations between the cross and the construction of the cathedral."
Not necessarily a settlement
Ersland says that the history of Sigurd Jorsalfare, who was born 60 years after the death of Skjalgsson, is reasonably well established.
The writings of Snorre Sturlasson about Jorsalfare match nicely with the constructional archaeological evidence, but apart from Heimskringla, written documents about Stavanger prior the 1200s are lacking.
"But a lack of written sources doesn't mean nobody was living there. The Christian burials indicate that there could have been a church at the site or nearby. On the other hand, in the 11th century a lot of churches were built in Norway without necessarily being located in populated settlements."
Ersland says we have to accept the compelling knowledge that there were Christian burials and probably a Christian cult site in Stavanger before the cathedral was built, but we cannot know in what context.
"But questions without answers tend to be the most intriguing ones; the air goes out of the balloon as soon as an answer if found. That's why this question will always be of interest. Stavanger's origins might never emerge from the shadows of history," concludes Ersland.
Read the article in Norwegian at forskning.no
Translated by: Glenn Ostling
Enigmatic vertebra
A thousand-year-old human vertebra with a mysterious square puncture was found among 30 skeletons beneath a Norwegian cathedral. Scientists have no explanation for how the hole was made.
Voices from the grave
Early in the 13th century husbands and wives were not always allowed to be buried next to each other in cemeteries. Old Norwegian skeletons reveal long-forgotten burial customs.
Shellfish and plastic can save Viking ships
Many of the 1,000-year-old Viking treasures are pretty fragile. New conservation techniques are being tested that include the use of prawn and crab shells.
Viking research sails eastward
The Vikings' relationship to Eastern Europe has been overlooked, but a new era in Viking research is underway, according to Norwegian Archaeologist.
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