In March 2024, Pollen Initiative, in partnership with the local facility administration, launched a media center at Central California Women’s Facility. But the journey to do so started long before. While editor in chief of San Quentin News, our Executive Director Jesse Vasquez would receive letters from California’s women’s prisons, asking to be included in the paper. 

“Dear San Quentin News,” they wrote, “You write about all the good stuff you have but we don’t have nothing. I don’t know how to say it but life is hard in here and I can’t do nothing about it.”

“Dear editor, we don’t get visits here. Can you help us get the word out?”

As a newspaper editor, there was only so much he could do. But Jesse kept these letters in the back of his mind, and when he paroled, they were the impetus for Pollen Initiative.

It started with cold calls in 2022, and a year later, CCWF PIO Lt. Monique Williams answered a call. After a site visit to meet with the Inmate Advisory Council, it was clear there was interest and buy-in for the women to have their own incarcerated-run newspaper. So we got to work.

Despite many obstacles, we ran our first 15-week Journalism Guild in 2024 to develop journalists and leaders who could take on the challenge of running a newspaper from the inside. Under the direction of our Editoral Director Kate McQueen, they did just that, printing their very first issue of CCWF Paper Trail in September 2024.

Their mission is to amplify voices and empower choices by engaging with the community, promoting hope, creating positive solutions, and amplifying voices rarely heard.

We drive to CCWF two to four times a week to open the media center, provide editorial support, and teach the Journalism Guild to train new writers. We also have more than 10 remote volunteers who help writers develop their stories and provide research.