About Tam:

 

More than 23 years ago, as a very young man barely into adulthood, Tam Steve Nguyen made choices that caused real harm and changed many lives forever. He has spent more than two decades living with the weight of those choices, taking accountability for them, and dedicating his life to becoming someone who gives back to others instead of causing harm.

 

Today, after more than 23 years of incarceration, Tam is no longer the young man who entered prison around the age of 20.

 

While incarcerated, Tam transformed his life through education, restorative justice work, mentorship, music, media production, and service to others. Instead of allowing prison to define him, he chose to dedicate himself to healing, both his own and that of the people around him.

 

Tam earned his associate’s degree while incarcerated and continues pursuing his bachelor’s degree. He later completed The Last Mile’s full stack engineering program and now serves as a teaching assistant, helping mentor and support other incarcerated students learning coding and career skills.

 

Tam is also an inside producer and contributor with the Ear Hustle podcast, where listeners have heard pieces of his story, creativity, music, and growth. Many Ear Hustle listeners already know Tam through the work he has contributed inside San Quentin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition, Tam serves as Vice Chair of The People In Blue, an incarcerated-led organization focused on changing prison culture through healing, accountability, rehabilitation, and community service. Through this work, The People In Blue has helped organize hygiene backpack drives for indigent incarcerated people, rehabilitation-focused resource fairs, mentorship opportunities, and the Family Time workshops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most importantly, Tam created “Family Time,” an eight-week communication and healing workshop designed to help families impacted by incarceration rebuild trust, improve communication, and break generational cycles of trauma.

 

The program was created through Tam’s own lived experiences growing up surrounded by broken family communication, domestic violence, racism, street violence, teen homelessness, and gang culture. Over years mentoring at-risk youth and facilitating rehabilitation groups, he recognized a painful pattern: many people were making meaningful changes inside prison or within youth mentorship programs, only to return home to the same unhealthy environments and communication patterns that contributed to their trauma in the first place. 

 

Family Time was created to interrupt that cycle.

 

Through guided communication exercises, emotional awareness work, accountability, forgiveness, and family-centered healing, the program has already impacted incarcerated participants and their loved ones in deeply meaningful ways. Families are reconnecting. Parents and children are rebuilding trust. Participants are learning healthier ways to communicate, process emotions, and heal relationships damaged by incarceration and trauma.

 

And Tam built all of this while incarcerated.

 

Importantly, there has already been growing outreach and interest in collaborating on and expanding the Family Time program beyond prison walls. Advocates, organizations, artists, and community leaders have recognized the impact and potential of the work Tam has created. But to fully realize this vision, to bring Family Time into communities, schools, reentry spaces, and families in crisis, Tam needs the opportunity to be physically present to lead, grow, and continue the work he started. The foundation has already been built from inside the prison. Imagine what could be accomplished if he were finally given the opportunity to continue that mission from home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If Tam has been able to accomplish this level of rehabilitation, leadership, mentorship, and community impact from inside prison walls, imagine how much more he could do if he were finally given the opportunity to continue this work in the community.

 

California says rehabilitation matters. Tam is living proof that it does.

 

Keeping someone incarcerated after they have demonstrated profound transformation, accountability, leadership, education, and a long-term commitment to healing no longer serves the interests of justice or public safety. Releasing Tam would allow him to expand Family Time into communities that desperately need support,  helping families heal, mentoring youth, supporting formerly incarcerated individuals, and preventing future harm before it happens.

 

This petition is not asking anyone to forget the past.

 

It is asking people to recognize growth, accountability, redemption, and the possibility that human beings can change.

 

We respectfully ask California decision-makers and community leaders , including Governor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles District Attorney’s office , and all others involved in reviewing Tam’s case, to support the release of Tam Steve Nguyen so he can continue the work of healing families and strengthening communities not from behind prison walls, but directly within the communities that need him most.

 

Please sign and share this petition in support of Tam’s release and second chance.