Player Profile: Adelaide Hulbert
Coaching inmates at San Quentin
This past March, Adelaide Hulbert began co-coaching pickleball at San Quentin Prison in San Rafael with Diane Kahn, the founder of a non-profit called Humans of San Quentin. Over the years, San Quentin (SQ) has moved towards embracing the rehabilitation retribution model. In March, 2023, Governor Newsom formalized this transition by announcing a plan to transform San Quentin – the oldest and most notorious prison in California – from a maximum-security prison into a rehabilitation center. San Quentin Prison is now called San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Over 60 different programs including GED and college education classes, media production, restorative justice, job skill training and more are supporting rehabilitation efforts. Pickleball is a natural addition.
Adelaide wasn’t the first to bring pickleball to SQ. Roger Bel Air, the Johnny Appleseed guru of pickleball in prisons and the founder of PICL – Pickleball for Incarcerated Communities League, introduced the game with a prison-wide tournament involving all levels of staff including the deputy and previous warden and the residents (as the incarcerated population are called). That day is remembered as a great success. So, when Bel Air connected Adelaide with the Director of SQ Sport programs, to see if she could coach pickleball, the “yes” was resounding and immediate.
Adelaide coaches at SQ every Friday morning. She never knows how many will show up. Sometimes nine residents play, other times it’s 20. “The men love playing, but they’re extremely busy with jobs and programming”. A highlight so far was a 12 team round robin tournament. The residents were so excited by the competition. Two tennis player pickleball converts took the gold. Adelaide also held a workshop for correctional staff with the goal of holding a resident/staff tournament in the future. Though the prison yard is huge, play has been limited to one windy, not quite level court. During tournaments, lines are drawn on two tennis courts. Because so many residents want to play, pickleball court lines have recently been painted in the housing blocks (which are behind walls and less windy) so they can play more often.
Pickleball is an ideal game to offer in prison. “It gives the men a little bit of joy, while teaching them social and leadership skills in a healthy and fun environment.” The residents agree. One said, “my time playing pickleball makes me forget where I am.”
Most of the players are young and play an aggressive game. Adelaide commented, “they’re bangers, so we work on their soft game.” Gang affiliations also add another dimension to the game. Our courtesy rule of playing with the resident next in line took a while for inmates to accept, as did the custom of tapping paddles and saying thank you after a game.
Although Adelaide has only been at SQ for several months, she’s already developing plans to increase the reach of the program. “I want to bring in some advanced players to pair up with the residents and to also hold a tournament that pairs residents with custody staff.” Holding up an issue of the SQ Newspaper where a recent article mentioned the aging prison population, she’s also considering starting a program for older residents.
Teaching at SQ has been “incredibly rewarding. My pre-conceived notion about what a criminal looks and acts like has been turned on its head. The men participating in the pickleball program are respectful and grateful, and are working very hard in their rehabilitation-oriented programs.”
- Judy Goddess
