The Inside/Outside Policy Fellowship is a program designed to increase contributions to the Ella Baker Center’s policy work by people who are directly impacted by the policies we are advocating to change. It’s also an opportunity for directly impacted people to learn more about the criminal justice movement and the process for changing policies, while receiving payment for their contributions and labor.
We are in our fourth year of the Inside/Outside Policy Fellowship! For this cohort two currently incarcerated Inside Policy Fellows will work with one formerly incarcerated Outside Policy Fellow for a nine-month fellowship program. All fellows will work hand-in-hand with the program team and in coordination with the broader EBC organization to determine statewide policy priorities, shape reform narratives, and conduct grassroots organizing and awareness building within prison settings and the broader criminal justice movement.
Meet Our Fellows
2025 Inside Fellows
Kanoa Harris-Pendang (he/him) is a community organizer, advocate and voice for all people. He is a member of he LGBTQIA+ Community serving as the Chairperson for its organization. Kanoa developed his passion for policy work, strategic community advocacy work and community outreach from his life experiences. He works as a Certified Drug and Alcohol Counselor and is the Managing Editor for CCWFs first newspaper, the Paper Trail. As a lifelong learner, Kanoa has learned to identify systemic issues and effectively find solutions. He knows, appreciates and values collaboration, teamwork and is happy to be a part of the EBC team.
Jessie Milo is American born of Mexican and Serbian descent, from Riverside California. He is a published writer, poet and artist and a longtime advocate for legislation and the rights and wellbeing of others. As a child of the system he has dedicated his life to being part of the solution. He is codeveloper of the first ever gun offender class inside prison, seeking to dismantle the harmful belief systems that plague our communities across this nation. He is an avid member of SQ civic engagement group and created art to help pass SB474 The BASICs Act. He is cofacilitator of Back2theStart, a class that helps process trauma and uses ACE score testimonials to influence solution based policies. He works as a YOP-Youth Offender Peer mentor to show the youth there is a better way. Through his art he seeks to create dialogue about humanity and the carceral system. He believes that “If we want things to change, then we have a duty to ourselves and future generations, to effect that change!”
Check out the Mercy for Jessie Milo petition here.
Meet our Inside Fellow Alumni
2024 Inside Fellows
Kenthy K. Porter (he/him) is a criminal justice reform advocate and Inside Community Organizer from Los Angeles. As an inside organizer he has worked to advance a culture of civic engagement and activism at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, where he is a resident. In 2023 Kenthy and others established Democracy Beyond Bars, an inside group which works to engage incarcerated people in public policy writing and advocacy. Kenthy is a Mentor and Senior Inside Organizer with Initiate Justice and has trained nearly 130 Inside Organizers in the California Legislative process, policy writing, and community advocacy techniques, through their Initiate Justice Inside Organizer training program, which he helped to establish while at CVSP.
Tony Tafoya (he/they) is a proud card-carrying member of the LGBTQ+ community and a queer child of the world. Growing up in a military family, relocation was inevitable, which allowed them to develop a deep compassion for humanity and injustice. He is a paralegal with an eye for detail and policy. They work tirelessly as the Inside Managing Producer of the award winning podcast Ear Hustle, where he highlights the stories of systems-impacted people to bring true humanity to ALL human beings. They are passionate about organizing and policy so that harm is not created in the aftermath of the legislation. They are committed to educating, empowering, and raising up marginalized peoples in order to help repair the world. He has organized on numerous legislative bills which have resulted in law. He joins the EBC policy family as our Inside Policy Fellow for the Inside/Outside Policy Fellowship, a program that aims to support systems impacted organizers through legislative training.
2024 Outside Fellow
Barbara Chavez’s (she, her) journey into advocacy is deeply rooted in her personal experience of injustice and the unwavering belief in the power of change. Having spent two decades behind the walls of confinement, she emerged from that experience with a burning desire to reform our criminal justice system. She knows firsthand the weight of an unjust sentence, and it’s this understanding that fuels her commitment to ending Life without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP) sentencing. In 2019, she stepped into a new chapter of her life, one where advocacy and change became her guiding principles. She took on the roles of Legal and Domestic Violence Advocate, as well as Case Manager for the Family Assistance Program in Southern California. These positions allowed her to channel her passion into direct support for those navigating complex legal and personal challenges. In 2023, she assumed the position of the Elder Freeman Policy Fellow at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC). This role allowed her to further amplify the voices of those who have often been silenced within the system. Now, as the 2024 Inside/Outside Policy Fellow at the Ella Baker Center, she can continue to contribute to the ongoing efforts for meaningful policy change. Her advocacy journey is fueled by the belief that every person deserves a chance at redemption and rehabilitation. She is dedicated to dismantling the barriers that perpetuate injustice within our system. Through collaboration, compassion, and unwavering determination, she strives to create a world where no one is condemned to a life without hope. Barbara Chavez’s (she, her) journey into advocacy is deeply rooted in her personal experience of injustice and the unwavering belief in the power of change. Having spent two decades behind the walls of confinement, she emerged from that experience with a burning desire to reform our criminal justice system. She knows firsthand the weight of an unjust sentence, and it’s this understanding that fuels her commitment to ending Life without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP) sentencing. In 2019, she stepped into a new chapter of her life, one where advocacy and change became her guiding principles. She took on the roles of Legal and Domestic Violence Advocate, as well as Case Manager for the Family Assistance Program in Southern California. These positions allowed her to channel her passion into direct support for those navigating complex legal and personal challenges. In 2023, she assumed the position of the Elder Freeman Policy Fellow at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC). This role allowed her to further amplify the voices of those who have often been silenced within the system. Now, as the 2024 Inside/Outside Policy Fellow at the Ella Baker Center, she can continue to contribute to the ongoing efforts for meaningful policy change. Her advocacy journey is fueled by the belief that every person deserves a chance at redemption and rehabilitation. She is dedicated to dismantling the barriers that perpetuate injustice within our system. Through collaboration, compassion, and unwavering determination, she strives to create a world where no one is condemned to a life without hope.
2023 Inside Fellows
Macio Lindsey (he/him) is from Southern California. He is a paralegal who is passionate about the law and advocating for the rights of disadvantaged community members. For over 20 years he has utilized his knowledge of the law to assist his incarcerated peers. Macio has a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication from California State University, Los Angeles, with aspirations to earn a Master’s Degree in Public Policy. He is committed to organizing and advocating for criminal justice reform, ending Life Without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP) sentencing, uplifting economically disadvantaged communities, and ending mass incarceration. In 2023, Macio joined the Ella Baker Center’s program team as an Inside Policy Fellow.
Steven Warren (he/him) is an African American, Oakland, CA native currently incarcerated at SQ. He’s a spoken word poetry and music writer and grandchild of a Black Panther. In June 2020, he supported EBC’s card campaign for the #StopSanQuentinOutbreak coalition, being directly impacted in reception center when the outbreak occurred. Currently, Steve is a facilitator for the Civic Engagement group at SQ and also runs a nonprofit workshop. He was also formerly the Inmate Advisory Council Vice President, representing the entire incarcerated people’s needs to the warden and administrative staff.
2022 Inside Fellows
Dortell Williams (he/him) is 56, and has been incarcerated since the age of 23. While incarcerated, he has earned a paralegal certificate, a BA in Communication Studies, and is a prolific essayist. He focuses on crime survivor justice, personal transformation for himself and others, and prison reform. He also led an academic group on Lancaster’s Honor Yard for over a decade, accumulating over 800 hours of peer-to-peer instruction. In 2022 he joined the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights’ policy team as an Inside Policy Fellow.
Mara Plascencia (she/her) is a Latina from San Diego California. Mara has been a member for California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) since 2016, first working to end the suicide crisis at the California Institution for Women (CIW). In 2019 Mara created a Youth Mentor Organization (YMO) to help her community at (CIW). YMO trains and supports youth mentees to become mentors and community leaders. At its largest and prior to COVID, Mara and her team supported 75 participants in the program. Mara has been an inside organizer for Initiate Justice since 2021. She’s a proud mother of Angel and Samirah Flores. In 2022 Mara joined the Ella Baker Center policy team as an Inside Policy Fellow.
Steve Brooks (he/him), is an African American writer, activist, and an award- winning journalist, originally from southern California. Steve played an instrumental role in the move to end ‘race-based lockdowns’ in California prisons. He has also been part of the San Quentin (SQ) Inside Organizing Team since 2019. During the outbreak at SQ in the Summer of 2020 he wrote several articles covering the outbreak. He has been an outspoken advocate for policy changes and decarceration. He is currently the Journalism Guild chairman for San Quentin News and Manager of SQs Wall city magazine.
2021 Inside Fellow
Thanh Tran (he/him) is a mixed race, Vietnamese and Black, documentary filmmaker and organizer from Sacramento, California. Since March 2019, Thanh has been part of the San Quentin Inside Organizing Team supporting EBC with legislation from the inside. During the pandemic, he has supported #StopSanQuentinOutbreak efforts for decarceration through writings and speaking to the media. In 2021, he officially joined the Policy Team as our inaugural “Inside Policy Fellow”. Today, he is the Policy Associate – tasked with helping grow the Inside/Outside Policy Fellowship program, provide leadership on state and local policy campaigns, support EBC-sponsored legislation, work in coalition to support legislative change, follow the implementation of sponsored legislation, and analyze potential legislation.
What is our Theory of Change?
If we organize with people who are currently incarcerated, then we breach the barriers designed to maintain the prison industrial complex: we challenge physical separation by reducing the prison population through policy; we challenge social separation by centering the ideas, needs, and leadership of those inside; and we challenge political separation by building a successful framework for the exercise of inside/outside political power.