FMEP Testifies at Public Safety Hearing in Support of AB958

Felony Murder Elimination Project is honored to co-sponsor Family Unity Bill AB-958 (Santiago). This bill will ensure that family visitation is a right, not a privilege. As many of you know, family support for incarcerated people is essential for both incarcerated persons and their families and loved ones.

On Tuesday, March 21st FMEP Executive Director Joanne Scheer testified in front of the Assembly Public Safety Committee on her own experience visiting her son over the last 16 years. Her testimony focused on the necessity of family unity throughout incarceration and described, in harrowing detail, what it is like to have her rights to visit arbitrarily revoked, with no recourse. 

We would like you to take a moment to watch or read this testimony and consider supporting AB 958 and our work today. 

Joanne Scheer testifies on behalf of AB 958.

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Alt text of testimony below.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee. I’m Joanne Scheer, founder of Felony Murder Elimination Project and proud cosponsor of Assembly Bill 958.

Sixteen years ago, my only child, Anthony, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole under the felony murder special circumstances law. He was 20 years old and had never been in trouble. I was 52 years old, his father, 67.

We have spent every weekend of the last 16 years visiting our son in prison. We’ve travelled thousands of miles and spent tens of thousands of dollars to keep our family together and encouraged through the devastation that is prison.

Our commitment to maintaining a strong family bond has been met by callousness and disregard by CDCR. We have found that our precious visits can be taken away for nonsensical and petty reasons.

Our visits have been terminated for infractions such as:

Saying hello to a vending machine vendor as they passed by our table - conversation welcomed at my son’s previous facility.

Accepting a ride to the visiting lobby when offered one by prison staff during a rainstorm.

Seven years ago, during a visit with my son, his cellmate bought and was using drugs in their cell. Though my son had no knowledge of his cellmate’s actions, he was charged and disciplined for that behavior because of the unwritten CDCR rule that holds both cellmates guilty for anything in the cell. The discipline he received for his cellmate’s infraction was one year with NO visits followed by 2 YEARS of behind-glass visits. The horror of this separation would have decimated a child unable to hug her father for 3 years.

Prison is supposed to be the punishment for a crime, not the decimation of families. CDCR should NOT have the right to withhold family visits unless, of course, a visiting infraction occurred in a visiting room. I did NOT give up my right to my son when he became incarcerated. This civil right to visit MUST be firmly reestablished for the sake of families.

Please vote yes on SB 958. Thank you.

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