Tagged With "california prisons"
Blog Post
We Don’t Need Prisons to Make Us Safer (yesmagazine.org)
The United States now has 2.3 million people behind bars of some form or another. These are not 2.3 million isolated individuals—their imprisonment sends reverberations into their families and communities. On any given day, 2.7 million children have a parent in prison. Incarcerating that parent removes a source of financial and emotional support for both children and adult family members. For families who are already in economically precarious situations, removing a parent can plunge them...
Blog Post
(At Least) 10 Things Educators Can Do to End the Prison Industrial Complex (edliberation.org)
Education for Liberation requires bold critique, creative acts, and, particularly for teachers, a willingness to take risks outside the status quo. Below we offer suggestions based on the ways many teachers and other youth advocates are building the capacity to challenge the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC). We know teachers are already practicing, generating and sharing other interventions. This is not a checklist of must-dos, nor is it an exhaustive list or intended to apply to every...
Blog Post
In Nation's Incarceration Capital, A New D.A. is Freeing People from Prison [theappeal.org]
By Katie Jane Fernelius, The Appeal, April 21, 2021 In recent years, prosecutors on a mission to challenge mass incarceration have been using their power to keep people out of prison, but now they’re beginning to turn their attention to those who are already locked up. Few have pursued this as promptly and publicly as Jason Williams, the new district attorney of New Orleans, who may be setting the bar for DAs nationwide. And this focus could be transformative in New Orleans, the largest city...
Blog Post
Born In Prison, How One Woman Used Her Trauma To Write The Post Traumatic Prison Disorder Act [forbes.com]
By Amanda Nguyen, Forbes, May 13, 2021 “I was born in prison, rented to the foster care system, then leased back to prison.” After she was born to an incarcerated mother and faced an unstable childhood, Shawanna Vaughn found herself back behind bars by the age of 17. “Walking into prison at 17 was the most traumatic experience of my life,” she remembers. She shared a cell with convicted murderers, mothers and young women. [ Please click here to read more .]
Blog Post
Formerly Incarcerated People in West Virginia Find Community Support (yesmagazine.org)
Amber Bjornsson says she had a “true heart change” while serving a two-year prison sentence for the years of fines and felonies she previously collected. Once her sentence was complete, Bjornsson moved into a recovery home. As Bjornsson returned to life outside of incarceration, she started to see the full picture of the obstacles in front of her. She took a job that paid minimum wage at a restaurant within walking distance of her transitional housing. Then, she faced the substantial court...
Blog Post
Removing Barriers to Success Created by the Criminal Justice System (barrons.com)
For people who have served prison time, the penalties never end. The California-based national nonprofit Alliance for Safety and Justice (ASJ) coined a term to describe what many of these people face: post-conviction poverty. After completing a sentence, and being freed from prison, a formerly convicted individual encounters thousands of restrictions depending on where they live that make it challenging to reintegrate into society. They may not be able to vote, get a driver’s license, or,...
Blog Post
Removing Barriers to Success Created by the Criminal Justice System [barrons.com]
By Abby Schultz, Barron's, July 31, 2021 For people who have served prison time, the penalties never end. The California-based national nonprofit Alliance for Safety and Justice (ASJ) coined a term to describe what many of these people face: post-conviction poverty. After completing a sentence, and being freed from prison, a formerly convicted individual encounters thousands of restrictions depending on where they live that make it challenging to reintegrate into society. They may not be...
Blog Post
How I Survived Prison With Native Spirituality and Mystery Science Theater 3000 (yesmagazine.org)
Mystery Science Theater 3000 , the TV show with movie-riffing puppets from the early 1990s, whose theme song began this way, became an important part of my life in 1992. I was an inmate at Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, Washington, and discovered the show while flipping through the channels on the tiny TV in my cell. I was doing 22 months on forgery and drug possession charges and, as an Alaska Native member of the Tlingit tribe, I had joined the prison’s Native American...
Blog Post
New Washington Laws Aim to Interrupt Foster Care-to-Prison Pipeline [imprintnews.org]
By Elizabeth Amon, The Imprint, August 9, 2021 What unites the group of imprisoned men seeking change isn’t addiction recovery, making amends or anger management. Instead, it’s a shared childhood experience: foster care. “State-Raised” is the name of the group they’ve formed with the goal of disrupting the foster care-to-prison pipeline. Washington legislation passed this spring is designed to help that mission, the group’s founder Arthur Longworth said on a recent call from the Monroe...
Blog Post
Spectrum News LA - CPP's Fritzi Horstman joins Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris at Valley State Prison
Spectrum News joins CPP's Fritzi Horstman and California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris at Valley State Prison in California.
Blog Post
New program allows incarcerated students to get bachelor’s degrees alongside peers on the outside (calmatters.org)
Fifteen years ago, Kenny Butler was at a low point. He had just been sentenced to life in prison. Now Butler, 47, is on track to earn his bachelor’s degree through a new program at Pitzer College, a small private liberal arts school in Southern California. The program, which began last December and which the school says is the first of its kind in the nation, is based on Inside Out curriculum — a type of teaching that brings college students and professors into prisons to learn alongside...
Blog Post
Minnesota Will No Longer Take Newborns from Incarcerated Parents [talkpoverty.org]
By Lizzie Tribone, Talk Poverty, October 5, 2021 When Jennifer Brown left Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee on a work-release program, it had been six-and-a-half months since she had seen her son, Elijah. The last time they’d been together was when she gave birth to him, under the watch of two prison guards, in a hospital near the prison. Brown had forty-eight hours with her newborn before she had to hand him over to a family chosen by Together for Good, a religious nonprofit that...
Blog Post
Join us October 27, 2021 for the inaugural event in our Trauma-Informed Criminal Justice System series, “The Relationship between PACEs and the Criminal Justice System”
Please join us for a new series entitled: Trauma-Informed Criminal Justice. This monthly series will feature conversations facilitated by Porter Jennings-McGarity, PACEs Connection Midwest and Tennessee community facilitator and criminal justice consultant, with special guests to discuss the need for trauma-informed criminal justice system reform. Using a PACEs-science lens, this series will examine the relationship between trauma and the criminal justice system, what needs changing, and...
Blog Post
Planting a Life—and a Future—After Prison (yesmagazine.org)
n February 2017, when Keia Blount was preparing to be released after serving a five-year prison term at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, she had no idea where to go. “Family was not an option to go back to,” she says. “There was nowhere for me to go except for a shelter.” At the last minute, she found Benevolence Farm in Graham, North Carolina, a transitional residential and employment program on an organic farm. She applied, a few members of the staff came to visit her...
Blog Post
How “Solitary Gardens” Help Envision a World Without Prisons (yesmagazine.org)
In a small patch of green space on Andry Street in New Orleans’ lower ninth ward, nine garden beds lie next to one another, each 6 feet by 9 feet, each the size of one standard solitary-confinement cell. Each garden bed grows a mix of herbs and flowers, among them pansies, stinging nettles, onions, mugwort. They are a mix of plants with medicinal properties and some that just bring pleasure to the eyes, and their growth is limited to the parts of the tiny space where a person would be free...
Blog Post
Prison And Jail Reentry And Health (HealthAffairs.org)
People reentering communities after incarceration are sicker than the general population and face barriers to accessing health care and other supports. Along with criminal justice reform, policy makers must work to improve evidence-based reentry programming that supports healthy people and communities. Key Points: Mass incarceration in the United States is a public health crisis that disproportionately affects Black and Brown people and their communities. Incarceration can exacerbate health...
Blog Post
Changing Prison from the Inside Out: Interview with Samual Brown (davisvanguard.org)
Cal State LA BA Prison Program Graduate Fights to End Involuntary Servitude On October 5, 2021, Samual Nathaniel Brown, co-founder of the Anti-Violence Safety and Accountability Project (ASAP), creator of the 10P program, and author of the constitutional amendment proposal, The California Abolition Act (ACA 3), recently became one of the first along with 24 other men to graduate with a bachelors in communication from Cal State LA’s Prison B.A. Graduation Initiative on the yard at California...
Blog Post
Gentle Men: The Healing Power of Vulnerability (mindful.org)
Growing up, I was taught that traditional male attributes are things like toughness, emotional reserve, strength, power, and staunch individualism. This image of a “traditional man” feeds into once-clear-cut roles like winner and provider . Edward M. Adams and Ed Frauenheim suggest that this version of masculinity is confined : both limited and limiting. In their 2020 book, Reinventing Masculinity , Adams and Frauenheim write, “Confined masculinity focuses more on a man’s sense of...
Blog Post
Help reunite families victim to mass incarceration to stop ACEs. Senate Bill 6164 Webinar - Get your loved one out of jail/prison sooner in WA State!
Free educational Webinar invite! Topic: Ending Mass Incarceration and Uniting families Join WashingtonCAN on 12/6 and 12/9 to learn about a tool that could help your loved one get resentenced and released early in Washington State! My name is Rashell and I’m the Lead Organizer with Washington Community Action Network (WashingtonCAN), a grassroots organization with 44,000 members that advocates for mass liberation and an end to mass incarceration, through lobbying, advocacy, and grassroots...
Blog Post
Free Wi-Fi Tablets Change Prison Dynamics (prisonjournalismproject.org)
Prison Journalism Project trains incarcerated writers to become journalists and publishes their stories. Subscribe to Inside Story to receive exclusive behind-the-scene looks at our best stories, as well as author profiles and other insights. On Aug. 10, 2021, Valley State Prison (VSP) in Chowchilla, California, became the first to provide free Global Tel Link (GTL) Wi-Fi tablets to its incarcerated population. Earlier in February, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation...
Comment
Re: Free Wi-Fi Tablets Change Prison Dynamics (prisonjournalismproject.org)
Thanks for sharing, Dana. I was wondering how it was going at Valley State Prison with the tablets. Unreal, though, about sending hardback books that offer healing and wholeness being considered contraband and get annihilated before they're delivered to the incarcerated resident, and yet here now it's acceptable to give them a ten-pound object that when broken, could be one sharp knife. That's what I consider to be contraband, but... Blessings, Tammy
Blog Post
Governor Newsom proposes dismantling California’s death row [mercurynews.com]
By Jakob Rodgers, Photo: Robert So/Pexels, The Mercury News, January 31, 2022 California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who three years ago placed a moratorium on executions, is moving to dismantle the United States’ largest death row by moving all condemned inmates to other prisons within two years. The goal is to turn the section at San Quentin State Prison into a “positive, healing environment.” Newsom said Monday it’s an outgrowth of his opposition to what he believes is a deeply flawed system, one...
Blog Post
In a first, former prisoner takes seat in New York State Assembly [reuters.com]
By Dan Fastenberg, Photo: Dan Fastenberg/Reuters, February 10, 2022 As far as Eddie Gibbs knows, he is the first person elected to the New York State Legislature who previously served time in prison, but shortly before his inauguration on Thursday he recalled wondering if he could ever shake the stigma of his manslaughter conviction more than 30 years ago. Gibbs, 53, won handily as the Democratic candidate in the Jan. 18 special election in the state Assembly's 68th District to represent...
Blog Post
Patience in Prison (prisonmindfulness.org)
From one of our recent Path of Freedom prison classes: "I practiced outside while I was walking: every time my mind would get caught up on wanting to get out of here, I would just let go of the thoughts, clear my mind and say to myself "patience." And I practiced in my cell: every time my mind would get caught up on wanting to get out of here, I would just let go of the thoughts, clear my mind, and say to myself "patience." So whether outside or inside, the practice was really helpful."...
Blog Post
Mindfulness Transforms Feelings (prisonmindfulness.org)
From one of our recent Path of Freedom prison classes: “In here we feel just about everything you could feel. But with the tools that we have from this practice we can see the feelings for what they are, allow them to be, and maybe even work with them a little bit, but not get swept up by them. And we can support each other in that, which is why people through the pandemic came up to us and asked us about what it is that we do and when the classes will be starting up again. Even some of...
Blog Post
Women leaving prison in Colorado are released without much-needed resources [coloradosun.com]
By Daliah Singer, Photo: Eli Imadali/The Colorado Trust, The Colorado Sun, February 25, 2022 On the day Pam Clifton was released from prison to a halfway house in Littleton, she was in possession of one pair of sweatpants, a box of paperwork and $3.18. It was 2002, and she had served almost four years on a drug charge. Being on the outside immediately overwhelmed her. Even the thought of walking into a 7-Eleven was terrifying; there were too many choices, too many bright lights. “I remember...
Blog Post
As COVID spread in federal prisons, many at-risk inmates tried and failed to get out (npr.org)
As of early March, officials at the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) say 287 federal inmates have died from COVID-19, a count that does not include deaths in privately managed prisons. Bureau officials have been saying since the beginning of the pandemic that they have a plan to keep the situation under control, but an NPR analysis of federal prison death records suggests a far different story. The federal prison system has seen a significant rise in deaths during the pandemic years. In 2020,...
Blog Post
The invention of incarceration (knowablemagazine.org)
For most of Western history, long-term incarceration wasn’t used as punishment, and many countries even had rules against it, Rubin tells Knowable . “The idea of confining people for long periods of time as punishment was really quite revolutionary.” Her research involves combing archives for records, letters and other documents on the early history of prisons, and along with other scholars she argues that prisons as we now know them first arose in the nascent United States, shortly after...
Blog Post
Felony Murder: An On-Ramp for Extreme Sentencing (sentencingproject.org)
In San Joaquin County, California in 2010, 19-year-old Emmanuel Mendoza helped lure a robbery victim to a location where a masked accomplice waited with a firearm. When a struggle with the victim over the firearm ensued, Mendoza’s accomplice fired a fatal shot. Although Mendoza did not have a weapon and the killing had not been planned, he was convicted of felony murder with special circumstances, and automatically sentenced to life without parole (LWOP). 1) In prison, he ended his gang...
Comment
Re: Felony Murder: An On-Ramp for Extreme Sentencing (sentencingproject.org)
If Mendoza renounced his gang membership to be eligible to serve his sentence in what was once called the California Honor Prison- before it reportedly was closed down, that might explain a relevant part of the story.... (that was a requirement for admission to the Honor Prison.) The title of Angela Davis' book may be worth pondering: "Are Prisons Obsolete?" George Bernard Shaw's quote may also be: "To punish a man, you must injure him; to Reform a man, you must improve him; and men are not...
Comment
Re: Putting Their Prison Pasts Behind Them (nationswell.com)
I first attended a 'leadership academy' at Postprandial Toastmasters (Club # 3259) - where I could also 'polish' my communication skills. The international by-laws were changed as a result of an initiative taken by a club member who was also a board member on the International board, so I was able to apply for membership, and have my application voted on by the club. All the members of that club at the time were aware that I'd been in prison (Adjudicated as a "Youthful Offender" [not...
Blog Post
Children’s book aims to combat stigma, uplift children with incarcerated parents [jjie.org]
By Renee Menart, Photo: Rob Marmion/Shutterstock, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, April 1, 2022 Children’s books centered on characters involved in the justice system can support kids with incarcerated parents and offer a compassionate window into this experience for broad young audiences. Incarceration is harmful not only to people held in confinement but to the health of their children , who, for example, may experience post-traumatic stress from witnessing a parent’s arrest or...
Blog Post
Inmates in California prison can exit with a better chance of success due to first college behind bars (upworthy.com)
Prison is supposed to serve two purposes: punishment and rehabilitation. But often prisoners emerge with the skills to be a better criminal and little knowledge on how to live an improved life. A prison in California is hoping to change the revolving door effect for some inmates by being the first to have a fully accredited junior college behind bars. At Mount Tamalpais College at San Quentin State Prison inmates can earn an Associate of Arts degree by taking classes in literature, American...
Blog Post
U.S. Department of Education Announces Expansion of Second Chance Pell Experiment and Actions to Help Incarcerated Individuals Resume Educational Journeys and Reduce Recidivism
Today, during Second Chance Month , the U.S. Department of Education announces actions to help incarcerated individuals access educational programs as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s broader efforts to support reentry, empower formerly incarcerated persons, enhance public safety, and strengthen our communities and our economy. The Department has invited 73 colleges and universities to participate in the third round of the Second Chance Pell E xperiment, an initiative first launched...
Blog Post
Her father went to prison - so she went to law school (bbc.com)
The first time Teeanna Brisco saw her father after he was released from prison was just before her law school graduation, when she picked him up from the airport. Bernard Brisco had been imprisoned for 20 years for non-violent drug crimes, sentenced in 2001 for selling cocaine. His daughter was just four years old. Mr Brisco, now 53, was given the lengthy sentence because of the so-called "three-strikes" sentencing law. Under the policy, which was implemented in the US in 1994, judges had to...
Blog Post
Summer Course Registration Now Open!
Announcing upcoming courses for educators! Join Trauma-informed Education or Supporting Marginalized Students this summer!
Blog Post
New Report: Human Rights Violations in Prisons Throughout Southern United States Cause Disparate & Lasting Harm in Black Communities [naacpldf.org]
From Legal Defense Fund, Photo: Unsplash, Legal Defense Fund, July 15, 2022 Yesterday, the Southern Prisons Coalition, a group of civil and human rights organizations, submitted a new report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination on the devastating consequences of incarceration on Black people throughout the southern United States. With the long-term goal of eliminating all forms of racial discrimination in the criminal legal system,...
Blog Post
California Senate rejects involuntary servitude amendment (abc10.com)
SACRAMENTO, Calif — The California Senate on Thursday rejected a proposal to ban involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime after Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration warned it could cost taxpayers billions of dollars by forcing the state to pay inmates who work while in prison a $15-per-hour minimum wage. California's constitution bans both slavery and involuntary servitude — forcing someone to provide labor against their will — but there is an exception for the punishment of a crime.
Blog Post
Opinion: Mass Incarceration Must End; Closing Private Prisons Is a Good Start (msn.com)
Photo: ( Sandy Huffaker/inewsource) © Provided by Times of San Diego The Times of San Diego article, Opinion: Mass Incarceration Must End: Closing Private Prisons is a Good Start Last year, President Joe Biden acknowledged what had been evident for years: Our nation’s reliance on mass incarceration “imposes significant costs and hardships on our society and communities and does not make us safer,” according to the president’s Executive Order 14006 signed just days after he took office. In...
Blog Post
"Prison Journalism Project": Independent Journalism by the Incarcerated
The Prison Journalism Project trains incarcerated writes to be journalists and publishes their stories to empower a marginalized community to be a vital voice in criminal justice reform. To read stories and learn more about this organization, visit their website at prisonjournalismproject.org.
Blog Post
The "Justice Delayed" Podcast
This podcast is an examination of the American Criminal Justice System and Prison Industrial Complex. To learn more about this podcast series and listen to episodes, visit their website at justicedelayed.libsyn.com .
Blog Post
Biden's pot pardon will help reverse War on Drugs harm to Black people, advocates say (npr.org)
A demonstrator waves a marijuana-themed flag in front on the White House. President Biden is pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of "simple possession" of marijuana under federal law. Jose Luis Magana/AP Author: To read Alana Wise's article, please click here. President Biden announced this month an executive order to pardon federal, simple marijuana possession charges for thousands of Americans – an important first step, advocates say, to reversing decades of uneven drug enforcement...
Blog Post
Philanthropy Must Challenge Our Punishment Paradigm—and End Solitary Confinement (nonprofitquarterly.org)
Image Credit: Jimmy Chan on pexels.com Author: To read Andrea Fionda and Scott Moyer's article, please click here. Fifty percent of prison suicides are carried out by individuals in solitary confinement. This disturbing statistic begs the question: When a criminal “justice” policy drives half of those subject to it to end their lives, what purpose is it serving? Whose safety is it ensuring? Solitary confinement is by no means implemented as a last resort. Incarcerated people are placed in...
Blog Post
Better laws, less punishment, more freedom – from Cuba to Oklahoma [csmonitor.com]
By Nick Roll, Photo: Sue Ogrocki/AP/File, Christian Science Monitor, October 24, 2022 1. United States Oklahoma has reduced its prison population by 21% over the last five years. Through a series of legislative reforms and voter initiatives, Oklahoma eliminated prison time for some low-level drug and property offenses, and reduced the length of sentences for other crimes. A community-led campaign called Project Commutation has helped people with long sentences have them commuted. And a...
Blog Post
The crime victims’ advocate fighting mass incarceration: ‘How we actually stop violence’ [TheGuardian.com]
Photo: Courtesy of Alliance for Safety and Justice In a new book, Lenore Anderson says the legal system doesn’t serve most victims or alleviate unaddressed trauma. For decades, the cause of victims’ rights has been one of the most powerful political movements in the US. From the 1980s to 2010s, advocates worked with law enforcement to transform the criminal justice system, passing more than 32,000 laws explicitly in the name of victims. Fueled by backlash to the civil rights era, white...
Comment
Re: The crime victims’ advocate fighting mass incarceration: ‘How we actually stop violence’ [TheGuardian.com]
If we consider 'Panther Clinics' and other forms of 'Civic Engagement', such as I also witnessed in the South Bronx-where a 'gang' accompanied Resident Pediatric and Internal Medicine Residents who made 'House Calls' in a 'neighborhood' with 100,000 Heroin Addicts at the time, and the prior requirements for admission to the California Honor Prison-before it was closed (Renouncing [violent] Gang Membership; commitment to Non-Violence; etc.), we might not miss the meaning behind George Bernard...
Blog Post
California Set to Become First State in Nation to Expand Medicaid Services for Justice-Involved Individuals (DHCS)
SACRAMENTO – California today became the first state in the nation to offer a targeted set of Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) services to youth and adults in state prisons, county jails, and youth correctional facilities for up to 90 days prior to release. Currently, Medi-Cal services are generally available only after release from incarceration. Through a federal Medicaid 1115 demonstration waiver, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) will establish a coordinated community...
Blog Post
Podcast: Neurodecolonization with Indigenous Incarcerated Youth with Dr. Michael Yellow Bird (PrisonMindfulness,podbeam.com)_
To listen to the podcast, please click HERE. In this episode, Michael Yellow Bird speaks with cohost Fleet Maull on his experiences working with indigenous youth, and his research focused on "Neurodecolonization". The systemic impacts of Colonization and abolishing indigenous sacred meditative practices “Neurodecolonization” The conceptual mindfulness framework and healing trauma in incarcerated, indigenous groups Building cognitive resilience in indigenous youth MICHAEL YELLOW BIRD Michael...
Blog Post
The Covington Curriculum Conference Returns to Minnesota
Strengthen your understanding and practice of gender-responsive, trauma-informed interventions when you train with Dr. Stephanie S. Covington at this national conference.
Blog Post
Washington State Department of Corrections is Providing Trauma-Informed Training
Community Resilience Initiative (CRI), the inspiration behind the Paper Tigers documentary, is partnering with the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC). For more than a decade, CRI has been providing trauma and resilience training to thousands of organizations across the country. What caught DOC’s eye, however, is CRI’s adherence to emerging neuroscience, specifically the focus on inclusive interactions. “Prisons are inherently stressful environments for both incarcerated...