A San Quentin inmate with a swastika tattooed on his hand greeted our class as we stepped off the bus outside the prison. It was 1975, and we were 30 counselors-in-training from Camp Swig in Saratoga out on a journey. (Camp Swig is now URJ Camp Newman in Santa Rosa.) As you can imagine, this was no ordinary field trip.
Our visit to the notorious maximum-security prison was organized by human rights advocates at camp who wanted to provide a memorable experience for our class of rising high school seniors.
In a step well beyond the usual camp simulation program, this very real “hands-on” experience was intended to open our hearts and minds to the issues of criminal-justice reform and the death penalty. This intention was very much in keeping with the social action themes that dominated camp programming in the 1960s and ’70s.