Catholic Herald - Diocese of Sacramento

Jeri Becker is a woman blessed with such an array of talents and depth of compassion, to think about them makes one’s head spin. She is a yoga teacher, a free-lance newspaper and magazine writer, a peer counselor, facilitator of a 12-step program for women, literacy coach, graphic artist, choir director, and a lay minister to hospitalized HIV and mentally disabled women. Last fall, after 9/11, she organized a fund-raiser for survivors and their families. Her appeal brought in $6,000.

Even more amazing is the fact that Becker, a 52-year-old lifelong Catholic, has honed these gifts behind prison bars. Since 1980 she has lived at the California Women’s Institution in Corona. Those who chipped in their meager savings to help the Twin Towers survivors last September were Becker’s sister inmates.

Jeri Becker went to prison in 1980 because of her involvement in a drug deal in Sausalito. Her male companion killed the dealer in a dispute over money. Marin County Superior Court Judge Warren McGuire sentenced her to life imprisonment, with expectation of parole in 17 years or when the parole board determined she no longer presented a risk. For her part in the crime—her first and only offense—Becker was convicted of first degree murder.

As Judge McGuire recently explained, Becker had brought the companion to intervene on her behalf, after she and the drug dealer got into a dispute. That’s why she received a first-degree murder charge. Becker, however, maintains she didn’t know her companion had a gun. During the struggle between the two men, she managed to prevent another woman from being injured. The shooter received a second-degree murder sentence.

This past May 21, the California Parole Board granted parole to Becker. Her case is now in the hands of the Prison Review Board for 120 days. In September, the board will pass it on to California Gov. Gray Davis for his approval or denial. Davis will have 30 days to decide.

For Becker, this summer has evolved into a monumental cliffhanger. Her fate rests in the hands of a man whose track record on granting paroles is close to zero. Elected on a tough law and order platform four years ago, Davis, a Democrat and a Catholic, has vetoed nearly 100 paroles of lifers brought before him. He has granted only two.

According to a May 2 Associated Press wire story by David Kravets, many defense attorneys and at least one lower court in California have said that Davis has an illegal blanket policy against paroling convicted murderers. The two cases he did not override were women Davis believed may have suffered from battered women syndrome.

Last January, a state appeals court ruled that Davis does not hold absolute authority to overturn a Board of Prison Terms’ parole decision. That ruling was viewed as a constitutional check on Proposition 89, which voters approved in 1988 granting the governor veto powers over the board’s decision. The Davis administration claimed the governor had the absolute ability to reverse the board as he saw fit.

The administration is now urging the California Supreme Court to review whether Davis has absolute power to overturn the Board of Prison Terms’ decision to parole convicted murderers. Its decision will probably come down in October, at the earliest.

Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, displeased over Davis’ parole granting record, has drafted a measure saying that the best way to take politics out of the process is for independent, three-judge panels to review the parole suitability of about 1,200 of the 24,500 inmates now serving life terms.

Under Polanco’s measure, parole hearings would be held directly by judicial panels from the sentencing jurisdiction. They could receive input from the Board of Prison Terms, but the judges would make the decision. Each inmate would have only one chance to be reviewed. Those turned down for parole would continue to be considered under the board’s current procedures, according to an April 15 article in The Sacramento Bee. While there is nothing in Polanco’s bill that explicitly seeks to overturn the governor’s authority on the issue, it would provide an alternative by taking cases directly to the courts.

The two women whom Davis has paroled enjoyed strong public support, including the backing of political leaders. More than 200 individuals have written letters to authorities on behalf of Becker. They include her sentencing judge, a Catholic nun, a California state assemblyman, the editor of a Catholic women’s newspaper, the founder of a yoga community, a prison minister, and inmates who have been helped by Becker’s 12-step workshops.

In addition, three people have offered her places to live in Marin County and she has three job offers.

Some 65 donors have pledged $14,000 to Reentry Resources, founded by four women from around the country to provide support for Becker during her first year of freedom, said Arlene Goetze, editor and director of the Catholic Women’s Network newspaper, a quarterly publication in Sunnyvale. The network’s board of directors is among the world-be-parolee’s chief supporters. The newspaper also funds educational programs for women, men and guards in the Santa Clara County Jail through grants and donations.

Since May 21, Goetze has spent several focused weeks organizing support for Becker’s parole. She is urging people to write to state Sens. John Burton, D-San Francisco, John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara, and Polanco, as well as their own legislators, asking them to intervene with the governor for Becker and all other rehabilitated women and men.

Goetze has composed a prayer she is urging people to say daily, on behalf of eligible parolees. It reads: “Divine Source of Justice, we ask your blessing on Gov. Davis. Fill him with wisdom to govern honestly, with insight to know truth and with courage to act justly. We asking your blessing of faith and hope for Jeri Becker, and all inmates found ready for parole.”

The Sunnyvale editor first became acquainted with Becker in 1995, after a Network reader sent an article Becker had written for Mothering magazine. It told how women in prison celebrate Christmas. “It was so moving that I called the magazine for Jeri’s address,” Goetze said. Goetze reprinted part of the story and asked Becker to write more stories. She did.

In recalling, “Beauty Log,” one of Becker’s first Network columns, Goetze said, “It literally blew my mind. It seemed truly miraculous that anyone could find beauty in prison living conditions.

“It also surprised me that she could have such depth of spirituality. I wondered where she was getting access to some of the great spiritual teachers of all time. After reading ‘Beauty Log’ I could see her walking the prison tract, stopping to pick wild greens, and steaming them over a tin can in her cell for her supper. She has dietary intolerances, and has trouble eating regular prison food.”

“There is a certain depth to her writing,” Goetze continued. “You can fake a religious conversion, but you cannot fake the kind of authentic spirituality that permeates Jeri’s writing and lifestyle.”

In her assessment of Becker’s case, Goetze mirrors other supporters. “It’s a matter of justice,” she contended. “She has been rehabilitated and is rightfully entitled to parole.”

Becker’s sentencing judge, McGuire, has praised her as “truly an outstanding example of a successfully rehabilitated inmate. She has more than paid her debt to society for her involvement in the death of a drug dealer in our county more than 20 years ago. Her release does not pose any reasonable threat to California public safety….I see no reason why Jeri Becker should be denied a parole date.”

Vasconcellos, dean of the California Legislature, offered his support for Becker in a letter to Robert Presley, the state’s Secretary of Youth and Adult Corrections: “I understand she was a bystander who never utilized a weapon…In addition, she intervened during the offense to prevent another woman present from being harmed…Jeri has engaged herself in self-development, intellectual and other healthy pursuits such as peer counseling, including instructing a 12-step program.”

Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Suzanne Steffens, an advocate for women prisoners at the Office of Detention Ministries for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, visits the Corona prison monthly. She has known Becker for several years. The organizer of “Get On the Bus,” a project which brings children and their guardians to Chowchilla each Mother’s Day, Sister Steffens said that Becker has “proven herself by what she has done for other women, (through her many classes). She has served her time way beyond her time.”

Vonda White, a fellow inmate and an art teacher, recalled in a Network column, how, after 9/11, Becker “got to work on organizing a fund drive for survivors. She made a book so that everyone here who wished to could write a message of sympathy and support to the people in New York.”

Becker and White organized a number of prayer vigils for staff and inmates alike. Within three days, they had raised $6,000.

White participates in prison hospital ministry with Becker. She said she will always carry the image of her friend “week after week, bathing the frightful sores of a dying transsexual with Carposi’s Sarcoma, and holding her in her arms.”

Sharon Abercrombie is a staff writer for The Catholic Voice, newspaper of the Diocese of Oakland.

Anyone interested in taking part in a letter-writing campaign on Jeri Becker’s behalf can contact Arlene Goetze at 877 Spinosa Dr., Sunnyvale, CA 94087. Phone: (408) 245-8663; E-mail: cwn@catholicwomensnet.org.