San Quentin Hosts Workshop on Defining Forgiveness
Residents at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center took part in a session on emotional intelligence and forgiveness led by Charles Mayer.
Updated on Nov. 10, 2026 in Wellness
The San Quentin Rehabilitation Center hosted a workshop titled "Defining Forgiveness" at its Learning Center, led by Charles Mayer. The session explored emotional intelligence and forgiveness through analogies and shared personal experiences.
Why it matters
The workshop reflects growing attention to emotional health and self-care within correctional rehabilitation programs in California. Mayer tied the discussion to research that stress is a leading cause of death, a framing that connects the session to broader wellness concerns.
The workshop cited research presenting stress as the leading cause of death, ahead of smoking and alcohol consumption, though no underlying study or figures were identified. The extraction does not specify how the claim was measured or whether it has been independently replicated.
The players
San Quentin Rehabilitation Center
A California state prison in San Quentin that offers rehabilitation programming to incarcerated residents, including the workshop described in this story.
Greater Good Science Center
A research center at the University of California, Berkeley that studies the science of well-being, compassion, and social connection, and whose definition of forgiveness was cited in the workshop.
The details
Mayer defined forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release resentment toward those who caused harm, attributing the definition to the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. He also introduced the Reach Model, a 12-step program combining a Forgiveness Model with aspects of Celebrate Recovery, while residents shared childhood experiences and identified self-care as a first step.
Timeline
The article about the Defining Forgiveness workshop was published on November 10, 2026.
Health Landscape
The workshop applies forgiveness research from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley to a prison rehabilitation setting, extending academic well-being work into correctional programming. It reflects a wider effort to pair emotional and psychological skills with rehabilitation in California's state prisons.
Readers interested in emotional well-being can apply the workshop's first step of self-care before working through resentment toward others. The approach described is a personal practice rather than a clinical treatment, and the extraction does not indicate any new medical service or product.
The takeaway
Letting go of resentment begins with self-care, a principle the workshop presented as the first step toward forgiveness. Applying that step in daily life can make the longer process of forgiving others more manageable.
Further reading
For more on emotional health practices, explore the Wellness section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Sanquentinnews.
