Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor — November 2024

We’re delighted to share with you excerpts from mail we’ve received from across the state. If you have some thoughts you’d like to share, please write us at our Pollen Initiative address.


I really enjoyed your perspective — it was a nice change after years of SQN and the Post. As I read through your paper, I thought of my mom, sisters, ex-wife and adult daughter (43 now but 27 the one/only time ever seeing her).

I’m glad to see good things happening at CCWF — I hope to hear much more for the sake of all the women there and their families and supporters. I hope y’all looked out for each other when Costco came to town!

Be good, do good, work hard.

— J. Stoner Soledad, CA


Congratulations on your Vo1. Issue 1. I am prayerful for your group and readers… Kudos for your truths and awareness.

— K. Cockrelli Stockton, CA


Congratulations on the publication of your first edition of your newspaper. We at the Mule Creek Post received our first copies this past week. As a result, the entire newsroom stopped to read it front to back. Our first impressions were unanimous: It’s pretty darn good.

Great anticipation among our staff built over these passing months, as we’d spent some time with [Pollen Initiative’s] Jesse Vasquez and Kate McQueen talking about it. Their excitement was contagious, and you did not disappoint. We welcome your team of professionals to the world of prison journalism. Your voices will fill a void that could not be filled by anyone else, and we are honored to share in this partnership between CCWF Paper Trail, the Mule Creek Post, San Quentin News, and Pollen Initiative. As we share space and distribution, we at the Mule Creek Post offer to share resources, research, and collaboration.

All in all, it’s a wonderful paper and a perfect beginning. One can only imagine how it will grow, how it will mature, what heights you will take it. You have great ideas, a vision, a direction towards which to move forward. Just remember who you are writing for, constantly ask yourselves if you’re true to your mission or if it needs to change.

One thing I will add as a caution, which comes from the mistakes we’ve made. Don’t let differences of opinion and vigorous debate divide you. Keep the communication open, let voices be heard, be willing to compromise, and don’t be afraid to say ‘I’m sorry” often.

— Al Rice, Copy Editor Mule Creek Post Ione, CA