Several weeks ago, unbeknownst to me, Linked In posted an alert: “Congratulate Ginnie Waters for 1 year at San Quentin Prison”. I started getting messages from people asking me if everything was okay along with other responses. One of the messages came from Joe, a producer I worked with at KGO-TV thirty or so years ago when Van Amburg was an anchor, news was shot on film and Breaking News! meant nothing short of an earthquake.
Since we live in an era where “fake news” is the norm, and before I’m alerted there’s a post on facebook declaring “Ginnie Waters is in prison,” I’d like to set the record straight: I’m not incarcerated at San Quentin. My career in the media has been erratic to say the least but rest assured that the only bars I’ve been behind lately serve drinks.
I understand that headlines are often open for interpretation and that wording and punctuation can be misleading (see book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves). And the fact that fact checking seems to have been retired along with white out correction fluid, I feel compelled to explain.
Yes, I have been at San Quentin for a year. (Congratulations!) I started working with the literacy program and later moved to the media center where I was a sponsor for San Quentin radio. No more office gossip, rumors, backstabbing, human relations and meetings and reviews and all the other meaningful things that waste time in the workforce.
I was sick of non-sensical policies that I had tolerated over the years like on-air reporters not being allowed to have long hair, (I refused to cut mine) and highly paid consultants dictating what color of lipstick to wear. I had this idea that working with non-profits and volunteer programs would sidestep all the political BS that one has to deal with in corporate America.
Um, not so fast. I discovered that prisons are micro-communities, mirrors of real life where drama is amplified by men who have a lot of time on their hands. I was told numerous times to ask no question and keep my head down when I walked through the yard. One inmate told me never to worry because he had my back, a statement that proved to be lost in incarceration.
I took a short break from going to prison when said inmate was thrown in the SHU and transferred to another prison. I had no idea what he had done but by coincidence ran in to Earlonne Woods, a host/producer on the popular podcast Ear Hustle the next day at The Center for Investigative Reporting. I tried to find out what happened but was reminded that when in prison a lot of what you hear is gossip and a good rule of thumb is to keep ones mouth shut. I would hear stories, but... In other words, this was a clear example of how inmates got their information on the inside; ear hustling (eavesdropping).
I suppose there is no place where people are more guarded, metaphorically and physically, than in prison. Staying grounded in a system that is self-serving rather than nourishing breeds an attitude that is difficult to grapple. I see it every day when I walk across the mainline. There are intelligent men, there are uneducated men. There are men with vacant eyes and men with hope. Artists, writers, poets and musicians serve time with athletes, gang members, and others all with one common goal. To get out.
I recently moved to the video production team at the media center. Perhaps we’ll develop a youtube channel or find other means to distribute videos that the inmates write, shoot, edit and produce. I don’t know how long my sentence working there will last, but here’s to the hope of hearing from you next year for my “Congrats on your two-year anniversary at San Quentin”.
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