Traditions. We all have them. Some good and, well, some not so good. Think for a minute. When you were a kid, what were your holiday traditions? Do you still follow some of them today? Put up lights? Bake special cookies or visit relatives? What if the law makes it impossible to follow your traditions?

More than two million Americans will spend the holidays locked up in a jail or prison. In the Bay Area, volunteers spend a few hours inside San Quentin State Prison’s cell blocks singing holiday songs with the men. It’s an annual tradition.

What’s it like to spend years of your adult life in prison over the holidays?

From inside San Quentin State Prison, join Shadeed Wallace Stepter, Rahsaan Thomas, and Emile DeWeaver as they share memories of holidays when they were free, and how, over the years, they have created new traditions, to celebrate the holidays behind prison walls.

Secretary of the San Quentin Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and reporter for Prison Renaissance, and a contributing opinion writer for San Jose Mercury News and Easy Street Magazine.