by Floyd D. Collins In my entire lifetime I had never personally experienced Racism. Yeah I knew what “Race Riots†were all about in prison, but I never disliked nor do I dislike any other race. I was not raised to dislike anybody for the color of their skin. President Trump recently said, “I made Juneteenth famous…†I laughed at his rhetoric, but in my 24 years and counting being in prison I never knew what day Juneteenth was on, and I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know what it represented. Why is that? History was taught to me
Continue ReadingYear: 2020
My Life Story
by Sean Walker This is an understanding of where I come from and my thought process as a review of the things I’ve lived through. I’m looking at who I was, and who I am now and how did I get there? How did I plan to live for the future? They say the sign will pay for the sins of the father. My pops The Hustler, the dope man, the player, the Junkie, the abuser, the non-existent Father Figure. Makes sense seeing who I have become the Hustler, the baller, the player, the cheater, the abusers magnet attracting all
Continue ReadingAmerica’s Forgotten
by Z In 2000, I was fourteen years old, in Los Angeles’s Skid Row. You wouldn’t believe such a third world slum existed within history’s richest country, oh, but it did. It does. A section of one of the world’s most glamorous cities set aside to hide thousands of homeless people, to hide America’s unwillingness to deal with poverty, mental health, drug addiction, and homelessness. It’s all swept under the rug, or under the shadow of downtown’s skyscrapers from the top of the world, down to a grimy, violent underworld, where you had to fight just to eat, and humanity
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Volume 25.27/28
Please contact Lisa Lavaysse if you would like to purchase the full PDF or a printed copy of this issue.
Continue ReadingEd Note 25.27/28
Welcome back to this latest double issue, 25.27/28, of The Beat Within! We hope that our community of readers, writers, and supporters are staying safe and healthy as COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the country, and as our fight for a more equal and just world persists. As we’ve done before, we’re continuing to highlight the reflections of our student interns from Urban High School of San Francisco. These students have been working hard and diligently during their school semester to transcribe pieces for publication in The Beat Without. Below, Dabney describes how quarantine has prompted her to turn
Continue ReadingThe Change
by Milton Alcantara The change I am fighting so hard to change for the better is quite frankly my entire way of being. At the moment I am writing this while sitting in a cell no bigger than my bathroom back home. I am an inmate in San Quentin State Prison. And I am here because of the way that I have conducted myself, as well as the way I learned to perceive the world around me over a hard and troubled life. A life that taught me nothing but aggression, violence and disappointment. It hard wired an impulsive and
Continue ReadingLife Story
by Si Dang My name is Si V. Dang, an inmate who is currently housed at San Quentin State Prison. I am a former gang member, who took the wrong course of action in joining a gang and decided to live a life a of crime. My poor decisions consequently led me to commit a senseless murder and attempted murder on two innocent human beings. As a result of my actions and poor choices I am currently serving a life sentence in prison, as I am under the authority of California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. I write you this
Continue ReadingThe Pandemic At San Quentin And What I See Every Six-Feet
by Timothy Young Since March 27th, 2020, the people at San Quentin State Prison’s West Block Housing Unit were notified by Memorandums generated from the Warden’s Office, the Medical Department and by Institutional Television channel, that a staff member here tested positive for a contagious and deadly disease known as the Coronavirus or COVID-19 and this disease has broken out into a global pandemic. Considering how I arrived at San Quentin, some history, the quarantines that I have experienced and what I see every six-feet. In late November 2011, I was transferred to San Quentin’s North Block Housing Unit from
Continue ReadingDear Dad
by AF Well, I know this isn’t to my dad, so I want to talk about him. I was named after him, and he was named after his dad, which makes me the third and him the junior. My dad showed me a pic when I was born. I was surrounded by hundred dollar bills and I never asked him where he got all that money. But as I grew up, I connected the pieces. My dad was in the streets, and I’m not talking about homeless. It’s exactly as it sounds. The streets. Man, when I was younger, I
Continue ReadingHope Is The Answer
by TL “Let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves.” – Barack Obama I agree with Obama’s quote. Participating in violence will only make a situation worse. All the protests that have been going on violently doesn’t make anything better. Not for the community, not for us, especially not for the children. If we want everyone to cooperate, police and civilians, black people, white people, white children, black children. This
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