In a recent feature from The Guardian, Kelly Savage-Rodriguez, a California Drop LWOP advocate, shares her survival story to help advocate for AB 2354. This bill would allow all abuse survivors to petition the court to vacate their arrests, convictions or adjudications, and order law enforcement and courts to seal records related to the arrest and offense.
"I am serving a life sentence at San Quentin. I know budget cuts will hurt foster youth," is a commentary piece featured in the San Diego Union-Tribune last week and written by Donald Thompson, who is is serving a life sentence at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (formerly known as San Quentin State Prison).
Tomorrow, Saturday May 10, free community defender resources will be offered at the Ross Snyder Recreation Center in Los Angeles from 10a-12 noon.
Last week, the Colorado legislature adopted Senate Bill 72, a first-in-the-nation reform that requires county sheriffs to better work with county clerks to facilitate voting for eligible voters who are confined pre-trial in jails.
AB 2959, introduced by Assemblyperson Liz Ortega (D20), seeks to reduce and regulate food prices in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation visiting rooms, require CDCR to renew and expand vendor contracts to include healthy options, and offer diverse food choices in prison vending machines.
AB 2178 promotes a more efficient and cost-effective use of taxpayer money by eliminating surplus bed capacity, potentially saving billions and paving the way for closing prisons. Please help us advocate for his bill ahead of hearing in the CA Assembly Appropriations Committee.
"California’s budget deficit will force difficult cuts. This one should be the easiest," an opinion piece written by Assemblyperson Phil Ting and CURB Executive Director Amber Rose Howard for the LA Times, advocates for closing and consolidating prison space at a time when prison bed occupancy is already decreasing.
The myth of “superhuman strength;" a descriptor often applied to Black people in police use-of-force cases, dates back to Reconstruction. When “superhuman strength” is allowed as a use-of-force justification in court cases, dehumanizing misconceptions and stereotypes make their way into the wider criminal justice system.
The Vera Institute of Justice and Young Women’s Freedom Center released ‘Freedom and Justice: Ending the Incarceration of Girls and Gender-Expansive Youth in California,' an in-depth look at the incarceration of girls and gender-expansive youth in California and steps to end their incarceration.
The essay "How I Regained My Self-Esteem in Prison" by Kashawn Taylor, an incarcerated writer in Connecticut, appears on the website for the Prison Journalism Project.