By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer
Getting mail is a big deal for most incarcerated individuals. It’s a crucial connection to the outside world, to legal representation, to parents who can send them money, to lovers they can no longer caress, and children they’re not seeing grow up in real time.
Mail is particularly important to Jarvis Jay Masters, a California death row inmate and author who has been featured by media mogul Oprah Winfrey’s wildly popular book club. Masters, 63, is on a hunger strike at the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown, protesting the repeated disappearance of his mail and a lack of transparency as to why and where that mail has gone.
“Right now, he doesn’t have any record or receipts of what happened, and that needs to be very clear and transparent, what happens to his mail, even if they reject it, he needs to know what happened to it, said Connie Pham, a long-time advocate with the FreeJarvis.org movement.
The OBSERVER spoke to Masters’ supporters on day 21 of his hunger strike.
“He’s trying to do his best and he’s trying to hold it together,” Pham said, adding that Masters has lost 30 pounds – approximately 10% of his body weight – and has weakened.
“We know that he’s in a wheelchair and he has a wheelchair assistant if he needs that,” Pham said.
This isn’t Masters’ first hunger strike; he has protested before at San Quentin over issues such as access to counsel, phones during lockdowns, and mailroom problems. Past strikes were shorter and often resulted in authorities meeting his demands or offering compromises, Pham said.
“He’s really hoping that CDCR, somebody from headquarters, can potentially look into this or start a fair, independent, transparent investigation into what’s happening in this mail room because he knows it’s not just him [and] that this is a wider issue affecting other people as well. It’s just more obvious with him because obviously he gets more mail than most people.”
Masters’ ongoing strike began while the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was in the midst of a statewide lockdown for level-three and level-four facilities due to issues with contraband and overdoses. The lockdown at Sierra Conservation Center ended June 28, but it prompted hundreds of inmates throughout state prisons to also go on hunger strikes in protest.
Pham said Masters has done relatively well since transferring facilities, but that the process can be traumatizing. The most recent lockdown, she added, was unsettling for him.
“Officials were really trying to get people to minimize all their possessions and that’s obviously very difficult for somebody who’s there indefinitely and who’s been in custody for decades,” Pham said.
Masters was able to keep all his belongings.
CDCR spokesperson Todd Javernick declined to address Masters’ actions directly, or whether his mail is being delivered properly, but issued a statement saying, “CDCR and California Correctional Health Care Services follow policies and procedures to carefully monitor, track, counsel and medically evaluate hunger strike participants.” The statement points to the system’s general policies for hunger strike response. According to the CDCR’s department operations manual, individuals such as Masters are to receive daily observation by licensed health care staff and weekly evaluations by primary care providers.
“It remains to be seen if they’re going to follow that protocol,” Pham said. “How that’s going to look at every facility is going to be a little bit different. Every case is going to be a little different. So I’m not exactly sure how authorities will be responding and how long Jarvis will go on. It’s day 21 so it’s pretty bad.”
Masters originally was incarcerated for armed robbery in 1981. He was one of three men convicted, despite evidence pointing to his innocence, in the 1985 stabbing death of San Quentin prison guard Sgt. Howell Burchfield. The individuals who ordered and committed the murder received life sentences, while Masters was sentenced to death for allegedly making the weapon, a claim he denies. He was transferred from San Quentin last year as part of the CDCR’s dismantling of its death row that followed larger rehabilitation-centered prison reform.
Masters has spent more than 40 years behind bars and has written books about his experiences, including “Finding Freedom: How Death Row Broke and Opened My Heart,” “Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row” and “That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row,” which Oprah’s Book Club featured in 2022.
Masters’ case has since garnered attention from organizations like the Compassion Prison Project and the Innocence Project. As a result, he gets mail from around the world.
Pham, a Buddhist and former educator, herself initially connected with Masters via a letter she wrote him after reading his first book.
“Because he’s a published author, a lot of the younger prisoners around him find out who he is and that he’s written these books. They’ve asked their family members to send them his books, and these books have been denied. They’re not getting his books, even though they’re sent through approved vendors,” she said. “Different things have just gone missing. It’s gotten to the point where some people, including myself, we’re not even sure if our mail is going through.”
Some have tried sending things by certified mail, but that means an additional $4-$5 cost.
“That’s just untenable in the long run,” Pham said.
Masters’ primary mode of communication is through email and texting via a tablet provided to inmates, technology that didn’t exist when he first went to prison.
“That’s where we learned of the issue and we’ve tried to reach out to various prison officials to try to help resolve it and, unfortunately, it has not happened yet,” Pham said.
Supporters believe the mail issues are systemic and affect many other incarcerated individuals at Sierra Conservation Center, citing instances of stamps being confiscated. They are calling for a fair, independent, and transparent investigation by CDCR headquarters into the center’s mailroom operations.
Support is crucial, said local poet and activist Staajabu, who performs and publishes works as part of the mother-daughter duo Straight Out Scribes. A Philadelphia native raised in Camden, New Jersey, the longtime Sacramento resident has advocated for countless prisoners over the years, including Nelson Mandela and Black Panther Party members Huey Newton, Angela Davis, Geronimo Pratt, the Omaha Two, the MOVE 8, the Angola Three, who started the first prison chapter inside Louisiana’s infamous state prison; and Mumia Abu-Jamal.
“Having communication with those outside the prison puts the prison staff on notice that someone cares,” Staajabu said.
Having mail, family visitors, callers, and attorney visits, she added, lets the prison staff see the inmate in another setting.
“Communication with those outside gives hope to the inmate that they are still connected to the world outside and he is a father, son, husband, brother, mother, sister, or friend to those on the outside.”
The Straight Out Scribes remain involved with the case of Abu-Jamal, a journalist and activist who remains in prison after being convicted of the 1981 death of a white Philadelphia police officer. Like Masters, Abu-Jamal has written several books from behind bars, including “Live from Death Row,” “All Things Censored,” and “We Want Freedom.” The Straight Out Scribes communicate with him regularly and often share his health challenges through their platforms. While unfamiliar with Masters’ case, Staajabu knows the power of advocacy.
“Had it not been for the outcry from Mumia’s family and supporters, they would have killed him a long time ago,” she said. “Two death warrants were signed, one in 1995 and again in 1999. There have been volumes written about his case. Again it took a public outcry from friends and supporters to get Brotha Jamal the medical attention he needed in 2015 and 2021.”
Pham’s advocacy on Masters’ behalf is rooted in a broader dedication to human rights and the abolition movement, particularly in humanizing the struggles of incarcerated people. In stepping up for incarcerated individuals, advocates and activists draw attention to the need for exploration and research into the root causes of the overrepresentation of African Americans in the criminal justice system including racial bias, poverty and unequal access to resources. It also points to the need for wide-reaching change ranging from bail and sentencing reform to mental health resources and reviews of jail and prison staffers.
“This isn’t just about Jarvis,” Pham said. “I know that by lifting one very powerful story that it sheds light on so many other systemic issues. There are countless other people who cannot get their stories out and who might not have the connections and advocates that Jarvis has.”
Masters has been appealing his conviction for decades. In September 2024, a district court denied his habeas petition, rejecting his claim that his detention is unlawful.
Editor’s Note: OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer Genoa Barrow explored the impact of mass incarceration in her award-winning 2023 series, “Inside Out.” The series can be found at sacobserver.com/inside-out.