Get Behind CURB – In the Spirit of Hope

Just the other day, I was out in the dayroom hoping to get a chance to use the phone to call my family. It’s always crowded, filled with noise and frustration bouncing off the steel and concrete that surrounds us on all sides. Even after 35 years of this, it remains a jarring experience.

On one of the high bare walls is a bulletin board crowded with memorandums telling us what we can’t have, what we can’t do, and what we shouldn’t be expecting. Off to one side, some of us tape up bits of information men need to know.

Several guys were discussing some bills that have been introduced into the California Legislature over the past year. Elder Parole (SB 224), the Alternative Custody Program (SB 219), and the Program Credits (AB 512) bills were all generating a lot of interest. I saw something on the faces of my fellow prisoners I don’t often see around here – hope. CURB has fought hard for all those bills.

Years ago, when Emily Harris asked me to become a part of the CURB National Advisory Board, I immediately agreed because I knew CURB to be an organization actually out there in the trenches fighting.

CURB is still out there fighting, but here’s the hard truth of it, Supporter – without the necessary funding, CURB can’t be everywhere we need them to be.

Right now, CURB is working to raise $25,000 in direct donations and recruit ten new monthly sustainers. I’m asking you to dig deep and help CURB reach that goal.

Here’s what your money invests in:

• A continuing and loud presence in Sacramento pushing hard for the passage of laws that will bring us home to our families
• Effective, persistent advocacy and organizing up and down the state against more jail cells, and for more rehabilitative programs to keep us out

If 250 people donate $100 each, CURB will reach their goal of $25,000. And how about ten people ready to step up and sign on as a monthly sustainer? I’ve got to believe you are out there.

Speaking as a very long-term prisoner, I can tell you how important hope is to surviving this experience. Every time I see a picture of Diana, looking fierce and unafraid with a bullhorn in her hands, in the midst of our mothers and children, it sends a shiver up my spine and swells my heart with hope.

CURB staff and volunteers are out there on the front lines for us – let’s get behind them and make a donation today. Do it in the spirit of hope.

Thank you so much for remembering us in here.

In solidarity,

Kenneth E. Hartman
National Advisory Board Member
Californians United for a Responsible Budget