Stanford students lead classes in San Quentin prison

When Philip Senegal considers the 21 years and seven months he’s served in San Quentin since his murder conviction, he can’t help but think his time behind bars will one day come to an end. Although his parole was recently denied, he’s banking on another shot at freedom in seven years – the next time he’ll be allowed to make his case to the parole board.

So he had a keen interest in the class he was taking on a recent Sunday – a discussion led by Stanford students on parole policies. Eager to talk about how state and federal judges have weighed in on the issue, he also wanted the students to walk away with an understanding of his personal experience.

“There are a lot of intricacies to how the system works,” said Senegal, who is 43. “And you don’t understand them just by studying things on the outside. If you don’t come inside and see what’s going on, then you’re just uninformed.”

To read the full Stanford Report article by Adam Gorlick, go to http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/february/san-quentin-class-021711.html. And to read about the launch of this innovative student effort, the Stanford Prison Forum, read the “Perspectives” piece by  Maggie Filler ’12 in the current issue of Stanford Lawyer at  http://stanfordlawyer.law.stanford.edu/2010/11/stanford-prison-forum/