For Heather, Who Asks Questions

Yes, we can write letters.

Peggy McHenry
Chief, Regulations Unit
California Department of Corrections
1515 S Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Ms. McHenry:


I have a friend who is in prison and has been for over 25 years. We have been friends since high school. For Christmas I sent him some gifts, a book of poetry by Rumi and an art book “A Star for Noon” by Gordon Parks.

He was allowed to keep the book of poetry but the art book, of female nudes with still lifes, 18 previously unpublished poems and a CD of chamber music, was returned to me because of nudity in the art book.

There is a vast difference between female nudity in the form of art, which is respectful and pornography, which is not.

When the gift I gave was returned to me, I was both frightened and frustrated. I had no idea that in our enlightened society a human being could be denied art.

I have enclosed a poem that I wrote out of that frustration as I find poetry cathartic. I am not so full of myself as to think that by my writing a simple letter, things will be changed. But I do feel that it is important to express my concerns in this matter.

Art lifts and heals the human spirit. Why those who are imprisoned are denied exposure to art -of any form- is beyond my realm of understanding.

Denied!
By Rebecca K. Gojkovich

Written upon the receipt of my gift, “A Star For Noon”
Denied by the Warden of a California Correctional Facility

Denied of our right to give freely from our collective heart
To give the gift of chamber music, poetry and art

To him who has been housed for so long
In your industrial concrete and steel

We tried to bring beauty
In images, song, and the written word.

It was “An Homage to Women”
In no way intended to cause a hostile environment toward women.

As if their witnessing, daily, human beings caged like animals
Were not hostile enough.

We envisioned him with eyes closed, his head tilted back
As the music takes him away.

To a place where flutes caress him like the wings of a dove.
Cellos mourn and weep for his losses.

While violins bring to him fond memories.
And the perseverance of the piano

And the angry beating of the drums
Reinforces his desire to never give up.

In the images of women and the words of Gordon Parks
We tried to bring to him a small piece of humanity

So that he will not forget
In that place where he lives

That there are those who still care
And always will.

The above is my response to the warden for denying my gift. She never wrote back.

Senator Majority Leader Richard G. Polanco
State Capital, Room 313
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Honorable Senator Polanco:

I am writing to you on behalf of my friend Elmo Chattman, who is incarcerated at CSP-Solano. Elmo recently (September 16, 2002) had a hearing before the Board of Prison Terms and was denied parole for another two years. It was brought to my attention, that the letter I wrote on behalf of Elmo Chattman, stating that he had a job waiting for him when he gets out of prison, and a place to stay with my husband, children and me, was never placed as part of the packet he took to the Board. This important information – that Elmo has a job and place to live upon release – was therefore not presented to the Board.

In brief, Elmo was with his brother when his brother spontaneously shot and killed a man. His brother even stated at his own hearing, in 2001, that Elmo tried to stop him from shooting the man. So you can imagine my surprise when Kenny (Elmo’s brother) GOT a date from the board and Elmo didn’t. How can the man that pulled the trigger get a release date and the one who tried to stop him be denied?

Elmo got his BA degree (from Antioch College) when he was at San Quentin. More recently he has taken a course through UC’s Graduate School of Journalism. He was editor of the San Quentin News in the 1980’s. Elmo is also a poet who has studied with Judith Tannenbaum when she taught at San Quentin. Elmo is a primary character in Judith’s book, Disguised as a Poem, My years Teaching Poetry at San Quentin (Northeastern University Press, 2000) and he helped Judith with the editing of that book.

Throughout the years I have kept in touch with our Deputy District Attorney Donald Grant who attended Elmo’s previous hearings in favor of Elmo’s release to our County of Ventura and who promised me that he would not retire until he saw Elmo released. He has since retired. So, I really don’t know where to turn at this point, and am asking for your assistance in this matter.

Putting all emotions aside for my dear friend Elmo, I wish to express my disappointment as a concerned citizen. I feel it is unfair to continue burdening taxpayers, for the continued incarceration of inmates who are no longer a threat to society and are suitable for release back into society. This is particularly troublesome when the perpetrator of the crime was given a parole date, and the man who tried to prevent the crime continues to be denied a date.

Sincerely,


Rebecca K. Gojkovich

(Kenny's parole date was denied by the governor)

Board of Prison Terms
1515 K Street, 16th floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
ATTN: Pam-- Correspondence

Subject: Elmo Chattman; C-05575
Post Recision #7
CSP-Solano


Dear Honorable Board Members:

I am writing on behalf of my friend Elmo Chattman. I have written to the board in the past so you are already aware that I have known Elmo since I was a Freshman in High School. I have corresponded with Elmo throughout the years and my husband and I have visited with Elmo, as well. My husband John has known Elmo since Junior High School.

With this letter I would like to take the opportunity to let the Board know that upon Elmo’s release he has a place to stay at our home in Camarillo, Ventura County. My husband and I our both gainfully employed. My husband is a mechanic for a Tree Care Company and I am a Quality Control Manger for a company that manufactures forgings for the aerospace industry.

We own our own home. We have two children still living at home ages 22 (Joseph, a bricklayer/tender) and 17 (Jacob, a senior in high school). My husband John and I have discussed with both of our children their thoughts on having Elmo coming to live with us upon his release and they both can’t wait for Elmo to join us. My children have spoken with Elmo over the years on the telephone and Elmo has sent to them books, etc., so he is not a stranger to my family. He is family. My family would all like very much to share with Elmo this new phase in his life.

So please let us.




And through it all he still has this to say.

Finding Peace

Listen . . .
In the quiet stillness
of this dingy cell,
something is afoot.
Time is marching on, dutifully,
despite my plaintive protests.
The years have become my foe
taking my youth, yet delivering me
no closer to freedom.
The mirror and these gray hairs conspire
to taunt me, to paint a portrait,
an image of me I fail to recognize.
The immortality I once knew
has been made a myth, displaced
by the burgeoning reality
of middle-age,
the new captain of my fate
with whom I must grudgingly
make my peace.


-- Elmo Chattman

Vacaville, CA 95696-4000