Early one Monday morning in Might, Vincent O’Bannon was dropped off outdoors the gates of San Quentin Rehabilitation Middle after serving greater than 15 years in jail.
He was convicted of business housebreaking and sentenced to serve 28 years to life plus 4 months underneath California’s Three Strikes legislation. However on April 29, a Santa Clara County Superior Court docket choose resentenced O’Bannon to 10 years with credit score for time served.
Two years in the past, the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation referred O’Bannon’s case again to the trial court docket after noticing sentencing errors in some authorized court docket paperwork. The superior court docket shortly denied resentencing. O’Bannon gave up any hope after a yr, till one particular night.
“He said: ‘Did you know you are being resentenced? I just read it on my Viapath tablet,’” O’Bannon stated. “Sure enough, an appellate court ruled in my favor.”
From information author to new life
However most notably, O’Bannon helped his daughter Autumn fulfill her dream of bringing the first-ever truck driving coaching course contained in the San Quentin jail.
Concrete Rose Correspondence College started virtually two years in the past. O’Bannon was the president and lead facilitator. However has since handed his function to a graduate of this system.
This system has graduated two cohorts of greater than 100 hopeful future truck drivers. They’ve each English and Spanish courses and have lately began a program particularly for youth offenders.
Concrete Rose has an extended ready listing. O’Bannon stated his objective now’s to get simulators launched into the jail for in-cab inspections and walk-around inspection coaching.
“I think we have a lot of support from San Quentin administration, who say they want to do it,” he stated. “Lately, I’ve been getting really lucky.”
But it surely wasn’t simply success that acquired O’Bannon re-sentenced and launched. He additionally did the work of addressing his felony components by taking a large number of self-help teams supplied at San Quentin. He had numerous assist letters, even from unlikely allies, San Francisco District Lawyer Brooke Jenkins and Santa Clara County Assistant District Atttorney David Angel. The choose was additionally impressed with O’Bannon’s self-reflection work and corrected conduct.
O’Bannon’s street to freedom wasn’t straightforward. In truth, it began rocky regardless of his rehabilitative achievements. At one level, he gave up on being resentenced and ready for a parole suitability listening to in the summertime of 2023. It was his first board listening to look, however he was granted parole.
O’Bannon ended up being taken in handcuffs to an Investigative Companies Unit workplace and skim his Miranda rights. Finally, he was discovered responsible of circumvention and his parole date was rescinded.
“They found me guilty of having my wife put money into other prisoners’ trust accounts,” he stated. “The board commissioners said that that was criminal thinking and it meant I still posed a threat to society.”
