Program Helps Incarcerated War Veterans

Vets in the Veterans Incarcerated Program at Sierra Conservation Center hope the camaraderie they’ve found behind bars will help keep them out once they are released 
by Alisha Wyman, The Union Democrat

Left: While incarcerated at Sierra Conservation Center (from left), Howard Wright, 52, of San Diego, James Poole, 61, of Thousand Oaks, and Jerome Lesesne, 41, of San Diego, find solace talking to each other and other members of the Veterans Incarcerated Program. 

Jerome Lesesne, 41, fought for the Marine Corps during Operation Desert Storm.

Alex Flores, 48, was in the Army National Guard for 21 years.

Howard Wright, 52, is an Army veteran who served in the states during the Vietnam War.

James Poole, 61, was in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.

Aside from their service, these four veterans have one more thing in common: They made mistakes that landed them in prison…

But they are now hoping the camaraderie they’ve found behind bars will help keep them out once they are released.

They are members of the Veterans Incarcerated Program at Sierra Conservation Center, a group that is just approaching its one-year anniversary.

In that time, it has grown from 21 members to 73.

The program’s basic goal is to help inform inmates of resources available to them as veterans, which will help make their transition from prison to the outside world easier when they’re released, said Sam Ramirez, an electrician at Sierra Conservation Center and a VIP sponsor.

Ramirez and Ed Bush, also an SCC electrician, decided to start the group for inmates thinking it would be helpful. Both are veterans.

"It just seemed like a well-worth effort on our part to become active," Ramirez said.

Members meet every other week. The program brings in guest speakers who provide information about job placement, housing, rehabilitation and other resources.

The group recently held a fundraiser at the prison. They sold meals from KFC and Pizza Plus to inmates, and donated the proceeds to Operation MOM, which sends care packages to servicemen and women abroad.

The raised $1,740 for the cause, and also gave inmates a break from their daily fare, said Poole, the program’s chairman.

In addition to connecting veterans with resources, the program allows them to connect with each other and find a renewed pride in their service, Bush said.

"They are veterans their entire lives and only inmates for a period of time," he pointed out.

Lesesne, who has been at SCC for 14 months on a second-degree burglary conviction, has found this through the program.

"Because I wear blue, I’m reminded every day what I did to get into prison," Lesesne said. "When I go to that group, I’m reminded of what I did before prison."

While much of the inmate population is divided into groups based on race or where they are from, veterans are able to see past those divisions.

"There’s a bond that we have that crosses some of the lines drawn in the sand by the other inmates," he said.

The program also aided Poole, both in recovering from the sorrow of war and in renewing his confidence.

When Poole opens his high school yearbook, it’s a reminder that many of the faces smiling back at him went to Vietnam but never came back with him.

In years following his return, there was a stigma attached to Vietnam veterans, he said. They were called "baby killers" and scorned for their service rather than revered.

The loss of his first wife to an auto accident and the subsequent failure of his second marriage only fueled feelings of loss and rejection.

It’s that feeling that headed him down the path to the crime.

Tears still come to his eyes when he talks about the war, but he’s working with others to start over.

"It’s emotional ties to the past, but it’s helping us look toward the future," Poole said.

The group spans age groups and wars, but there are a significant number of Vietnam veterans who are incarcerated, said John Mendiola, vice president for the Sonora-area chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

The war’s unpopularity, a lack of recognition of post traumatic stress syndrome at the time, and veteran’s resistance to getting involved in veterans’ groups may have contributed to this, he said.

Substance abuse was also widespread.

"A lot of us got our apprenticeship in drugs and alcohol there in the service," said Mendiola, an outside volunteer.

Wright began using cocaine starting in the military. The habit only grew after he left the service, until he was arrested for selling the drug.

Over the years, he told himself many lies justifying his addiction, he said.

"Being around veterans — this veterans group — we can kind of look at our mistakes and be honest about it," he said.

Wright is now a group advisor and does outreach to outside veterans groups and other agencies in which the inmates can find help.

That support can help prevent veterans from falling back into the environments that got them into trouble, he said.

Flores has been behind bars for seven years for assault with a deadly weapon.

Next month is the long-awaited end of his sentence.

He will go back to Corona, where his family lives, and hopes to go back to school to study business, he said. Someday, he wants to open his own restaurant.

As he transitions, Flores plans to use what he’s learned through the group and get in touch with veterans who can offer him assistance, he said.

But his bond with his fellow incarcerated veterans won’t be completely severed with his release.

"I’m going to miss these guys," he said. "I’m going to miss this group."