Volleyball at San Quentin

Today I played volleyball with inmates in the yard at San Quentin, a maximum security prison.

At the suggestion of John Hedlund, head coach at Drake High School, my fellow assistant coach and I accompanied him inside the gates to become the first non-inmates to ever play volleyball in the prison.

Recently there has been some press coverage of the tennis and baseball programs from outlets like ESPN, and there were a couple women reporting on the activities today.

The best thing to do was to relax and just have fun. After gaining security clearance via a background check, we were allowed to pass through the three security gates and inside the castle-like front gate.

Once inside we were walked through the grounds with our guide pointing out things like the old hospital (built in 1885, currently being replaced), death row, the gunmen in the towers, and eventually, the rec yard. The prison is designed for about 3,000, and houses around 5,300 now.

We were assured that we would be fine and that the gunmen would be watching us. Our introduction to the yard security guard was less encouraging as he mentioned that everyone in San Quentin had a serious history of crime or had committed murder, and that fights and violence were actually a common theme. "Shanks, throat slitting, it happens pretty often. We had one last night..."

Right...now to meet our new friends. We were told that the Hispanics were most into volleyball, and sure enough a few minutes after running into the tennis players in the video below (both in for murder), a net and poles were rolling toward us, pushed by a trio of "norteños" or northern Mexicans.

Since baseball tryouts were also taking place today, we couldn't play on the field and they rolled the net onto the blacktop. Since it was sloped like crazy, we asked if we could move it to a flat spot next to the workout bars and tennis court. The inmates looked at each other with hesitant glances and then their leader named Gilbert decided he would see if he could work something out with the heavily tattooed whites and Asians working out and hanging out on tables and benches. After 10 minutes or so of discussion with three different groups, he announced that we could move down there.

The game began, with a muddy and rocky court and lines drawn with rocks, in the middle of a few racially segregated crowds of inmates, most of whom were doing pushups, crunches and pull-ups, or talking in small groups. Other inmates jogged around the perimeter of the blacktop. It was the three of us versus the three norteños. They weren't great, but were very into it.

We attracted some interest from some other guys around the yard and we had a few teams rotating in, including people from a bunch of different groups...black, white, Asian...
It was clear from their words and play that a bunch of them had played in the past, although they weren't quite up to date on rules. "Back when we were free that wasn't a rule" a guy said once.

We played for about two hours straight, and eventually mixed teams with inmates for the last couple games to 15. The uncomfortable moments came when guys would bump knees under the net, slip and fall in the mud, or a ball would be hit off the court and into someone's territory. Usually an inmate would ask for the ball and they'd throw it back to us without hesitation. One a ball bounced up and hit a guy playing poker in the head, but fortunately he didn't seem to mind. His friend had a minor issue, but it passed.

Interesting stories to come I'm sure, as we're now expected to do it regularly. The prison sports director was really excited about how well it went, and mentioned that the part of the yard we were using hadn't been used in a long time, and that the guys there made a concession to allow us to use it. He was also happy about the different groups coming together and all the guys were very thankful after. I'm hoping to either bring a camera myself or have someone accompany us to document some of the inmates and the yard because it is really another world in there. You can get an idea from the video below.

Just beyond the watch towers with guards and guns there is a great view of Mount Tam, and I assume that view represents freedom that few of them will ever get to see.