Check out those San Quentin prisoners styled out in tuxedos for the prison’s first father-daughter prom, where daughters in ballgowns visited their fathers for a red-carpet affair that in many cases was their first contact in years.

There has long been an effort to clean up and reform San Quentin State Prison, and make it into what Governor Gavin Newsom called a “healing environment." To that end, the facility has changed its name to the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, and according to NBC Bay Area, it even had a three-day Pride Weekend celebration last week. Now KTVU has the news that San Quentin also hosted a father-daughter “Parent Prom,” literally rolling out a red carpet at the prison’s chapel, and providing prisoners with tuxedos, bringing in their daughters in ballgowns, and allowing some of these prisoners to see their daughters for the first time in years.


This event actually happened three months ago, on April 5, as Bay City News reported at the time. And the costs were not covered by the prison or with taxpayer dollars. Oakland-area hairstylists and dress/tuxedo shops donated their time and materials, prisoner advocacy groups Friends of the People in Blue and The Last Mile raised private funds for the daughters’ travel, Got Light designed the prom’s dance floor and interiors, and Oakland bakery Angel Cakes provided refreshements. The prom was organized by current prisoner Tam Nguyen, as the culmination of a family communication project he’s been spearheading for most of this year.  

"I recognized that the majority of these people that came to prison, that committed crimes, also came from a dysfunctional home," Nguyen told KPIX. "A lot of the incarcerated people come from underserved communities, single-parent households."


And there were certainly tearjerker moments. The above video shows one father and daughter seeing each other outside of a visitation room capacity for the first time. “Tommy has spent nearly two decades inside San Quentin State Prison. For 19 years, he’s only seen his daughter in visitation rooms. But last night, everything changed," the God Behind Bars program said on Instagram. "For one sacred evening, prison walls faded away. Tommy held his daughter, not in chains, not through glass—but in his arms. They wept. She clung to him. Time stood still."


There is also the very bittersweet angle that one of the daughters was killed in a head-on traffic collision just months after the event, leaving the Parent Prom as the final memory of his daughter for prisoner Steven Embrey. "I’m so happy I participated in the prom and I got to see her. She was so beautiful that day. I have so many beautiful memories," Embrey told Bay City News after learning of her passing.

Related: Gavin Newsom’s $240 Million Gussying-Up of San Quentin Prison Is Now Underway [SFist]

Image: @CACorrections via Twitter