Teach in Prison

Phase I, Update I
by WH
24 May 09

We had our initial meeting at the prison on Wednesday, May 20th, after the prison finally lifted its ban on non-essential staff to prevent swine flu contamination. We had a team meeting (Alayna Johnson, Erik McDonald, and West Hays) the night before to prepare. We discussed:

Our roles

West & Alayna: Project leads
Erik: Technical lead, donations and fundraising

CDCR Protocols

-no used computers
-no Network talk of any kind (no intranet, it's against regulations)
-no Specific talk about saving files onto the HDs
-no talk of Bypassing San Quentin IT by utilizing prison labor

Phase I, Update II
by WH
31 May 09

We’re all three familiar with working during the school year, but I think we are adjusting to working on school-related matters (SQAACC) during summer. Alayna is mountaineering in Santa Barbara, Erik is running a research team, and I’m traveling across the country working on a PR campaign of sorts.

Alayna has been holding down the fort in Berkeley, getting TIP docs to the ASUC and GSPP, running a summer program of tutors in the prison, and moving SQAACC forward. I won’t be able to pull my weight until the end of June, at which point Alayna can take a well-deserved break.

Phase I, Update III
by WH
7 June 09

Alayna Louie Johnson (ALJ) got our Big Ideas Marketplace site up and running, which may be self-explanatory because you’re reading this. She also registered us as an official campus group, a babystep we forgot to take forever ago.

ALJ and Annie (A) from Bears Breaking Boundaries (BBB) have been working to make this thing official. Erik McDonald (EMcD) and I are forever in their debt for handling these on-campus challenges.

Officer BS over at SQ sent me a message saying that our project made the _San Quentin News_ (_SQN_), which is the prison’s staggeringly professional monthly paper. I’m so excited to see the article but I’m still on the road so it’ll have to wait a few weeks. I keep clicking the reload button at http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Visitors/San_Quentin_News/SQ_newsletter.html

Phase I, Update IV
by WH
14 June 09

Alayna attended the prison’s monthly Tech Committee meeting this week. Erik is getting along well at his UCSF appointment, running a team of students conducting research. I’m in Kansas, and looking forward to the end of the month when I’ll be back in Berkeley. I touched base with Frank this week, vice principal of SQ’s education program.

I priced out some other computers online. HP is still on top, even though Dell is offering a $50 cash back deal. With the discount, Dell’s Inspiron 537s come in at $1,187 – monitor and everything included. HP’s still at $1,007. Don’t believe me? http://www.hardlycore.com/HPQuoteWTF.JPG