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In visit to O.H. Close, governor calls importance of prison training program 'basic'

Record - 1/28/2019

Jan. 27--STOCKTON -- Growing up in group homes in Fresno's foster care system didn't provide the most stable environment for Marquis Lowe. The young man broke the law, was convicted and sentenced to the O.H. Close Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton.

Lowe, 19, now is looking forward to being released in December. But odds are that he will return to prison, this time as an adult, within the next three years -- except for one lucky turn of events.

Lowe just happens to be incarcerated at O.H. Close when the facility has become the latest within California's prison system to institute a technology and business skills training program in partnership with The Last Mile and Google.org, the information technology giant's philanthropy arm focused on closing the education gap and improving the nation's criminal justice system.

Last month, Google.org awarded San Francisco-based nonprofit The Last Mile a $2 million grant to educate and certify 525 incarcerated youths and adults within the next two years in skills that include entrepreneurship, front-end coding, web and mobile app development and quality assurance.

The Last Mile started teaching computer coding skills to San Quentin State Prison inmates in 2010. Today, it operates prison classrooms in California, Kansas and Indiana, and is using the grant to expand its services. Its high-tech classroom at O.H. Close is No. 14, and it plans on having 50 prison classrooms operating within the next five years.

The new Stockton training program is dubbed Code.7370. The 18-month curriculum uses proprietary program architecture to simulate a live coding environment without internet access, according to the California Prison Industry Authority that manages prison training programs.

To date, Code.7370 has a recidivism rate of zero percent among program participants from San Quentin, Pelican Bay, California Institution for Women and the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility.

Earlier this week, Lowe -- who met Gov. Gavin Newsom during his visit to the Stockton facility -- was working at a computer station on an innovative app intended to match high school athletes with the right college.

"I'm learning to make websites and apps," Lowe said. "I'm staying busy and this makes the time go by quick. Before, I was just sitting around the unit."

With 11 months left before his scheduled release, Lowe -- with support from his mom, who he talks to on a daily basis -- is making plans to attend Fresno City College, then California State University, Fresno, to further his studies in computer science.

"The whole goal is to reduce recidivism," said Beverly Parenti -- who co-founded The Last Mile with husband Chris Redlitz -- noting that The Last Mile is one of the most requested prison education programs in the United States and the first to offer computer programming curriculum that teaches youth and adults to become software engineers.

Also visiting Lowe and others in the Code.7370 program this week was Jason Jones, a 35-year-old Bay Area software engineer who received his initial computer coding training while serving more than 13 years at San Quentin.

"I spent all my adult life in prison. In 2014, I was introduced to the coding program on my 31st birthday," said Jones, who works as a software engineer for Fandom and teaches coding to high school students at McClymonds High School in West Oakland.

He told the incarcerated youths that if he had had the opportunity to learn coding during his time in the juvenile justice system, his life would have taken a different path.

"In order to be successful, you have to think it's possible," he said. "You've got the governor here to check you out. You know it's important."

For Newsom, the importance -- in addition to drastically lowering prison recidivism and saving taxpayer money -- is basic.

"This is about changing people's lives," the governor said. "I've seen the program firsthand in San Quentin. The people I've met in San Quentin are out here (in Stockton) mentoring these children. And Google mentoring these children is exactly the type of partnership we want to see."

A second new training curriculum introduced publicly at O.H. Close this week was the Pre-Apprentice Construction Labor Program. Journeyman construction professionals such as Stockton'sDerrick Wofford Sr. supervise a six-month training program in which graduates earn accredited certifications and are eligible for placement in full-scale apprenticeships upon release.

The Prison Industry Authority pays the graduate's initial union dues and provides them with a full set of tools upon completion of training. Program partners include Laborers Local 73 of Stockton and Laborers Local 185 of Sacramento.

"This is a really good idea. We teach them about what it means to be a worker, a co-worker and a boss," Wofford, 50, said while supervising several youths setting up and leveling wooden forms on a dirt patch to pour concrete for a new sidewalk.

"The main thing these young men go through in here is boredom. This makes doing their time beneficial for them. This is a really good program at a really good time."

Editor's note: This report is Part Two of Gov. Gavin Newsom's visit to O.H. Close Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton on Tuesday. Part One -- "Setting a new mark" -- appeared in Wednesday's Record.

Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoeGoldeen.

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