Father Tom Maguire is watching a movie at Folsom State Prison with about 25 blue-shirted inmates — black, white and Hispanic. It’s ‘Dead Man Walking,” starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon.

They are sitting on folding chairs in the Greystone Chapel, the second-oldest building at the old prison.

Father Maguire is trying to get the guys to see the parallels, if any, in their lives and the life of the condemned killer.

“When you’re angry, you’re irrational,” Father Maguire says. A few men nod.

The chaplain says the movie is not entertainment for these men. “It’s a hard movie to watch.”

An African-American inmate with a large plastic comb stuck in his hair asks a visitor if she wants to sit down and watch the movie with the men.

“This is an anger management class,” he whispers politely.

“Does it work?” the visitor asked.

“That wasn’t my problem,” he whispers back. “My problem was making bad decisions.”

“Oh.”

Later, in his tiny office at the front of the chapel, Father Maguire said the felons in Folsom are for the most part trying to live their lives the best that they can while they’re in prison.

“Most of them will be paroled at some time,” he said. “They come to class to better themselves, to pass the time, and perhaps to learn how to avoid making the same mistakes again.”

Father Maguire says there are 30 to 40 Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings in the prison each week.

Inmate Jermaine Subia, 20, meets with Father Maguire in his office.

“You’ve missed two classes, but if you complete 10 classes — they each last two hours — you’ll get a certificate,” the priest tells Subia.

Father Maguire also is concerned that Subia has been identified as a Mexican and will be placed in Mexican-only prison housing. Subia’s parents are from Spain, he says, so Subia should be labeled as “other” and placed in different housing. If Subia is placed with the Mexicans, Father Maguire says, he will be forced to join a gang and will suffer more restrictions as the Mexican housing wing is locked down more often than the general population.

Subia says he’s willing to take the anger management class; Father Maguire gives him some homework to look at and sends him on his way.

“A lot of guys want to come in and discuss personal issues,” he said. “They come in and talk.” In fact on this day there’s a line of about six men waiting outside his office.

Father Maguire, 64, has been the Catholic chaplain at Folsom for 10 years. Before that, he had a similar job at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione for a decade. A native of Leitrim in northwest Ireland, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1969 and came to serve in the Diocese of Sacramento that same year.

Of the 3,100 men in Folsom, Father Maguire says 50 percent have some contact with the chapel. There’s frequently a waiting list for Saturday and Sunday Masses, since the chapel can only hold 110 people.

The granite chapel borders one side of the outdoor yard. Prisoners exercise, mill about, walk with friends and talk just outside Father Maguire’s office.

Upon entering and leaving the chapel, visitors walk through a series of chain link fences. Security seems a little casual but Father Maguire is totally relaxed.

“I could blow this whistle and have five guards here in two minutes,” he said, bringing a silver whistle from beneath his shirt.

“Every person in prison is an individual,” he said. “They’re all different and each story is unique.” But addiction is a common link shared by up to 90 percent of the inmates. At least 85 percent of the crimes committed by these men took place while they were high or in order to finance a high, he said.

“Are you able to reach them?”

“I hope so,” Father Maguire said.

The priest says that AA and NA programs are well established at the prison.

“I’m very committed to anger management,” he said. “I do informational programs on what addiction is, but recovery is as unique as the disease.

“Recovery is the acknowledgement that every addiction from drinking to over-eating affects your entire personality. Recovery is managing those addictions so they don’t become destructive.”

There’s a waiting list of up to 100 at the prison for his anger management and substance abuse classes.

Father Maguire knows that many men take his classes because it will look good when they go before the parole board. Still, he says, there’s a great need for more rehabilitation programs.

The people who don’t make it are those who just can’t take responsibility.

“They have to be able to look at their situation and take responsibility for whatever got them to this point,” he said. “They can’t do the childhood blaming thing of ‘my life was so rough it’s no wonder that I’m here.’

“If you can get over that, you can succeed in rebuilding,” Father Maguire added. “That’s probably why I stay. I meet people who are inspiring to me all the time.

“The vast majority of the people you meet in prison are everyday people you’d meet on the outside. Sometimes just one disastrous choice puts you in here.”

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