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While lounging on the Lower Yard, John Lam promoted the Kid CAT program to invite new participants during the Day of Peace event. Lam also wrote for Kid CAT Speaks! — a column for SQNews.
John Lam’s journey as a free man By Tim Hicks
Q: How long were you incarcerated? When did you parole?
I Sam Hearnes, SQNews
was incarcerated for nearly 16 years; my original sentence was 26 years to life. In 2018, I was given a commutation by Governor Jerry Brown, and my sentence was reduced to 16 years to life. This gave me an opportunity to appear before the Board of Prison Hearings 10 years early and demonstrate my rehabilitation and fitness to parole. I paroled on Oct. 9, 2019. Q: How are you adjusting to the real world? A: It’s been a bit weird. Not too long after I paroled, while I was still in transitional housing, the global pandemic struck, and so I have been quarantining and social distanc-
ing for about 18 months. The quarantining has been a bit of a blessing in disguise, as it allowed me time to focus on myself, spend time with family and really work to establish a strong foundation for the next chapter of my life. I was able to use the time to work on things I always wanted to, but didn’t have the opportunity to do in prison. I learned to code and created an app to trade crypto currency, took some classes online and applied and got accepted to all the universities I applied to. Q: Talk about being accepted to Cal Berkeley? A: Shortly after getting accepted to Berkeley, I also got accepted to UCLA. UC Merced offered a full ride, but Berkeley had always held a strong appeal to me. Growing up I was influenced by my parents, who gave
me the impression that if someone made it to Berkeley, they will have become successful. Also I think it would be pretty cool that I finally get to see for myself what a Berkeley education is. When I took classes at Patten at San Quentin, the teachers from Berkeley often said, ‘you guys try harder than students in Berkeley,’ which left me with the impression that maybe we can become successful students there one day. With that said, it still feels a bit surreal that I got accepted into Berkeley and will be living on campus and attending school there in a month. Q: What is your major and why did you choose that? A: My major is political science, but I’m thinking about switching my major to computer science, but for sure at least a minor in FALL 2021 WALL CITY 7
