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NEW: CURB Proposes Reductions in Prison Population to Save California Billions
MECHA Statewide conference at LA Valley College
Vote NO on Prop. 6 & Prop. 9!
Ongoing
Let everyone know you oppose the Governor and the Legislature's back door deal to build 53,000 new prison and jail cells - all without any opportunity for public input. Sign CURB's petition online at:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/caprisonexpansion?e
and download the petition to collect your own signatures.
CAN CALIFORNIA BUILD ITS WAY OUT OF THE PRISON CRISIS?
A workshop available from Californians United for a Responsible Budget. Click here to download a flyer about the workshop and find out how to schedule one.
February 27, 2008
Press Release: CURB files an amicus brief in prison overcrowding lawsuit, proposes reductions in California's prison population to save millions of dollars. Click here to download the full press release.
Click here for a one-page summary of the amicus brief.
January 10, 2008
Press Release: Coalition supports budget proposals for early releases, changes to parole policies.
Click here to download the full press release.
May 8, 2007
Coalition releases report on alternatives to controversial plan to build 4,500 new women’s prison beds
Governor’s May Revise budget expected to add beds in women’s prisons on top of $15 billion plan to build 53,000 beds passed last week
--DOWNLOAD REPORT--
WHAT: Telephonic Press Conference
Call in number: 1-800-256-8682; Code: 97263
WHEN: Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 10:00am (pst)
WHO:
- Hamdiyah Cooks, CA Coalition for Women Prisoners, All of Us Or None
- Karen Shain, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
- Susan Burton, A New Way of Life Reentry Center
- Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore, author Golden Gulag
- Vanessa Huang, Justice Now
BACKGROUND: In January 2006, Gov. Schwarzenegger announced that the Department of Corrections (CDCR) had identified 4,500 people currently in women’s prisons who no longer needed to be there. Instead of developing a plan to provide transitional services and release them, the CDCR proposed building between 2,900 and 4,500 new beds in urban mini-prisons, called Female Rehabilitative Community Corrections Centers (FRCCCs).
In response to broad based opposition from California organizations providing services for women in prison, labor, feminist scholars, experts and others, a bill that would have authorized construction of these new beds (AB76) was stripped of all construction in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. Nonetheless, the Governor has stated his intention to include the 4,500 bed construction project in his May revised budget to be issued next week. This construction plan would be in addition to the $15 billion, 53,000 bed package enacted by the legislature and the Governor last week.
This telephonic press conference announces the release of a special report on reducing the number of people in California’s prisons for women. The report analyzes how the construction of new “gender responsive” prisons will harm women, children and families and recommends policy alternatives to the FRCCCs.
Speakers will include representatives of organizations who work directly with the people in, and coming home from California’s women’s prisons, including individuals who have served on the CDCR’s Gender Responsive Strategies Commission, and scholars who have extensively studied the growth of California’s prisons.
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Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) is a broad based statewide coalition of over 40 organizations committed to curbing prison spending by reducing the number of people in prison and closing prisons.
May 1, 2007
Lawmakers and Governor deny Californians right to vote
on $7.3 billion in bonds for more prisons
Coalition asks where the “reform” is
in massive prison building proposal
download/view press release
April 25, 2007
download pdf | download word doc
Dear Friends,
It looks like, once again, the legislature is trying to strike a "deal" to build thousands of more prison and jail beds in California. Our phone calls to Senator Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez can actually make a big difference in stopping this awful thing.
We're also hearing that the "victim's rights" groups are doing phone blasts, so its in some ways even more important that we get real voices for community health and safety out there.
Best of all, it's really easy to do.
Call (916) 651-4009 for Perata and (916) 319-2046 for Nunez.
All you have to say is "I'd like to leave a message about the prison expansion proposal for the "Senator/Assemblymember."
Then they'll transfer you to someone who will take your message, and you just say: "I'm calling to strongly urge Senator Perata/Assemblymember Nunez not to agree to any new prison construction of any kind this year. If for some reason a prison deal is approved, I also think it needs to go before the voters before the people of California take on more than $10 billion dollars of new debt."
They'll ask for your name and what city you're calling from, and that's that.
Thank you so much - we stopped this madness twice last year, and we can do it again right now!
Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB). |
