Close California Prisons

California’s own Penal Code affirms that “criminal justice policies that rely on building and operating more prisons to address community safety concerns are not sustainable, and will not result in improved public safety.” Prisons are inherently traumatic, dangerous places that don’t keep people safe. We need transformative interventions when harm and violence happen - but prisons have proven to be an ineffective intervention. Incarceration “disappears" humans after harm has occurred, and fails to address the root causes of our social problems. It is our moral and ethical obligation to find a better way.

Thousands of people rely on income from working at prisons in California. However, prison jobs are deeply traumatic and lead to negative health outcomes. These are not “good jobs.” That's why we need labor solutions that transition people away from harmful jobs and toward a sustainable future for all. Multibillion dollar economies structured around a system that criminalizes, cages and harms people are not sustainable. Nobody who wants a good paying job should be without one because a prison closes. Prison closure will create opportunity for state investment in healthy jobs of the future for everyone, including those returning to community from imprisonment, and a just transition to new economies.

The consequences of caging human beings is lethal. People in state prisons die early, and they are more vulnerable to dying from chronic conditions like cancer, heart disease, liver disease, and respiratory disease. It’s said that each year of life served in prison decreases an individual’s life expectancy by two years. People with serious mental health conditions account for ⅓ of the prison population, and suicide rates inside prisons are many more times higher than the national average.

The U.S. spends $300 billion on the prison industrial complex annually. CDCR’s budget alone has grown by more than $5 billion over the last 12 years, with the California corrections budget totalling $19.5 billion for 2023-24. Does that sound like a responsible budget to you? Imagine what we could accomplish if we shifted local economies away from a perceived reliance on incarceration, and towards healthy and life-affirming investments in communities in need and cities where prisons get shut down.

Prisons are systemically racist. Black people are 6.5% of California’s population but make up 28% of the people in prisons. Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and multiracial people account for 68% of the people who are on death row, serving Life Without Parole (LWOP) or endure other draconian sentences. To effectively confront generations of racist harm, California must invest in Black and marginalized communities as part of any comprehensive prison closure and public safety strategy.

Prisons are sites of toxic air, land and water. Climate change - including worsening California wildfires and flooding - has made the call to close prisons more urgent than ever. We must transition to a sustainable future by uniting labor and community interests with what's good for the planet. Policy change can move us away from extractive economies like fossil fuels and prisons and toward healthy, sustainable land and green jobs with integrity.