We’re off to a great start.
Since the Federal Court put Governor Jerry Brown on a strict three week deadline to reduce the state prison population, we’ve started to build the pressure it will take to make him do actually do it.
Today, we need you to help build that pressure directly on lawmakers.
As Ruthie Gilmore wrote in a much-shared Facebook post yesterday:
“California has 50,000 fewer people locked in prisons and jails than it did five years ago. We have the opportunity in the coming months to make further reductions in a system that destroys lives, inside prison and out, and to shift public priorities and public spending away from cages and cops and into programs that build a stronger and safer California.”
The Governor has shown that he’s much more interested in playing a game of legal chicken than in solving California’s prison crisis – with no respect for the real people’s lives that are at stake.
On May 2nd, when he has to submit his plan to the court, we want that foot-dragging to stop.
We want an ambitious, courageous plan that reduces the number of people in prison by at least 9,000 and doesn’t rely on costly prison construction. We demand a plan that includes retroactive sentencing reform and proactive parole reform that brings home lifers, parents, rapidly aging and medically fragile prisoners, and further reduces the women’s prison population. And we don’t want to see him push the crisis onto the counties by realigning more people and forcing taxpayer funds into costly new jail construction projects.
We want our people, and our resources, home where they belong.
So far, our media work has helped hold Brown’s racist fear-mongering at bay. But now we need to open up direct lines of communication with lawmakers themselves, and show just how determined we are.
Please click here now and send a your elected officials a message now.
Thanks for stepping up,
Diana Zuñiga
Field Organizer
P.S.: if you don’t live in California, we still need you! Click here to send a message to Jerry Brown. He needs to know that people all over are watching, and want to see real action.
