On November 13, the CSUB Ethnic Department hosted a symposium open to community members and CSUB students. The event kicked off at 11:30 a.m., with the art gallery displaying students’ artwork illustrating the impacts of mass incarceration on individuals and society. Opening remarks were then given by Dr. Jeremiah Sataraka, Ethnic Studies Department Chair, followed by Sofia Galvan, educator and art curator.

Galvan, in her speech, addressed the issues of mass incarceration and the need to reclaim the narrative. 

“The first step in a pipeline is to reclaim your own narrative, a way to hold the contradictions of trauma and resilience of oppression and the desire for liberation. In this space, the students didn’t just analyze systems; they fought to reclaim their voices within,” said Galvan 

Students’ artwork displayed the various barriers that result from incarceration, a life of freedom and liberation. Some artists explored the theme of what the world would look like without prisons or mass incarceration. One particular student’s artwork represented two sides contrasting each other, one with black brick, alluding to the growth and life that is stunted within prison and for-profit detention facilities. On the opposing side, the bricks were flushed in color, which the artist explained depicts healing, transformation, and even hope. 

Following Galvan’s remark, the Ethnic Studies Faculty did a brief teach-in with Dr. José Villagrán, Dr. Jeremiah Staraka, and Dr. Nora Cisneros. Each faculty member discussed a different overarching theme. Each professor did an ancestor acknowledgement, honoring and recalling ancestors within the community, invoking their presence. 

Villagrán, who specialises in Chicano and Latino Studies, discussed and presented on the Immigration Industrial Complex of Detention Centers. He noted that detention centers differ from deportation and the impacts of detention facilities. 

“I want to point out that detention is a separate practice from deportation. Detention typically leads to deportation, but certainly not always if you are more privileged and have more resources. Detention itself is a very much United States for-profit industry,” said Villagrán.

Villagrán also presented on how racism holds powerful structural forces, often eliminating resources to allow individuals to flourish. He went on to acknowledge how Latinos are overrepresented in studies of mass incarceration. 

“I want us to begin to dismantle the wall that we placed between prison and detention centers, for not only are they often systems that operate in the same lines for prisons to detention centers. For example, they serve a similar function- separating families, keeping people of color out of the workforce. They are also profiting off the cheap labor we provide, but then when they catch us without papers, they are profiting off our detention and misery,” said Villagran. 

In Detain and Deport: The Chaotic U.S Immigration Regime, a book released in 2019, Villagran references how detention centers make a profit of $124 a day per detainee.

Dolly Camacho, a political science student at CSUB, was in attendance and spoke to Kern Sol regarding what she learned about mass incarceration. 

“What I’ve taken from this symposium is the importance of discussing immigrant and marginalized communities and how they are affected by this, and how the school and educational system we have in place are closely linked to high levels of incarceration,” stated Camacho. 

According to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, Kern County briefly held the title of the highest number of expulsions in California. 

“By putting more resources towards keeping people from not only getting incarcerated, but also, once they’re incarcerated, getting them to transition back into the community, would reduce mass incarceration. I feel like that’s why a lot of people who are incarcerated end up back because it’s hard to transition back,” shared Camacho. 

Sataraka continued with a discussion focusing on Japanese American Incarceration and how it relates to the measures being taken at the federal level to increase mass deportations. Sataraka’s discussion allowed individuals to reflect on the current climate. 

Satarka discussed how the military forcibly removed 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast to detention and concentration camps. He also mentioned how Japanese Americans were heavily surveilled and displaced pre- and post- Pearl Harbor and touched on the history of Japanese Americans in Bakersfield.

“The Bakersfield High School Japanese American Diploma  Project is an interesting case that features the stories of a couple of Bakersfield Japanese Americans who were sent to the Poston concentration camp in Arizona,” said Sataraka. 

He further explained that through the Diploma  Project, Bakersfield High invited Japanese American students from 1942-45 to grant them a high school diploma, which they were deprived of receiving. The former students received and participated in a celebration in 2003.

“Hopefully, you all get the chance to see the documentary. The trauma that these families, these students, went through has stayed with them their whole lives because that’s the kind of impact that a system like our prisons, our jails, and our detention centers have,” concluded Satarka 

Carlton Lennon, a CSUB student majoring in political science, learned about the event through his professors and friends attending. Lennon shared the significance of learning about the history of incarceration and policies in place. 

“History is important, especially when it comes to just considering immigration policies and the effects that certain policies can have on our community. Also, evaluating things from a smaller and a local level than just a federal or state angle. I also think that there needs to be more conversation and evaluation in regards to student support to help empathize with them,” said Lennon.

Cisneros concluded the faculty teach-in discussion by demonstrating the various systematic factors and practices that influence students into the criminal justice system. One factor she touched on was the disciplinary actions schools take. 

“We can’t talk about the school-to-prison pipeline without understanding the role of discipline practices and why that’s important. It’s also the curriculum and teaching. There’s curriculum that pushes students out of schools and leads them towards encounters with criminal and law enforcement, and community factors as well,” suggested Cisneros.

CSUB student, Brittany Oceguera,  admits that before attending today’s symposium, she was unaware of how much students of color are strongly impacted by systems of incarceration.