Jail House Tours

By: Youth Justice Coalition

If you think Halloween is frightening, try being locked up in California! Beware of Cal Trans Zombies, Ghoulish Guards and Dead Men Walking. Get gorged on eye ball punch, and gut-filled cup cakes. And, get an education on the world's largest injustice system. Trip on this: the richest state in the U.S. is also the world's 3rd largest prison system behind the entire U.S. (#1) and China (#2)!!!


Now that's scary!

Friday, October 29, 2010

Haunted Jail House Tours: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Scary Movies: 8:00 PM - Midnight

At Chuco's Justice Center - 1137 E. Redondo Blvd., Inglewood, CA 90302

On the Corner of West Blvd., One Light West of Crenshaw and Florence

By: HHS Network of California

By issuing his line-item veto package – cutting $1 billion from the state budget -- the Governor has made it abundantly clear that he neither values, nor appreciates, the proven economic contributions that strong health and human services are capable of delivering to the state’s economy.


These cuts, which include $256 million from stage 3 child-care (which will cost the state upwards of 60,000 jobs), $366 million from Calworks, and millions from other health care and human services programs, will have significant impacts on all Californians, but it’s women in particular who will suffer most.

By unilaterally imposing massive spending cuts to programs that enable countless women to go to work, go to school and discover new opportunities for success, the Governor is essentially cutting California women off at the knees, and turning his back on decades of progress.

And despite this malicious attack on women and families, Governor Schwarzenegger plans to attend his wife’s annual “Women’s Conference” in Long Beach on Tuesday October 26 – an entire event dedicated to the “empowerment of women.”

We need to tell the Governor that you can’t stand up for women’s empowerment AND cut the very health and human services programs that empower women to better themselves and open new opportunities to succeed!

That’s exactly why hundreds of working families, mothers, advocates and providers are planning to hold an all-day rally outside the conference to demand that Governor Schwarzenegger restore funding to stage 3 child-care, just one of the many programs that suffered as a result of the Governor’s “blue pencil” cuts!

And if you’re in the Long Beach area – you can take action, too!

Take action & show your support on TUESDAY October 26!


Rally to Restore Stage 3 Child-Care Funding
When: Tuesday, October 26 from 6 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Where: Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center
300 East Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802
(Download the flyer)


Click here for more event details!


Not only has the Governor turned his back on the compromise budget agreement that he helped negotiate, but he has taken unilateral action to cut millions from critical and job saving programs, while at the same time victimizing millions of California women, families and children!


Protecting and investing in crucial programs, such as CalWORKS, childcare and community colleges are key to ensuring that California women are empowered to succeed and thrive!

More than anything, the Governor’s actions since the passing of the state budget are just another reminder of why this year’s election in November is so important and timely!

That’s why we need to show our support and VOTE YES on:  


Proposition 24: Repeals the $1.3 billion in tax breaks to wealthy corporations secretly passed in 2008, and helps prevent devastating cuts to health and human services.

Proposition 25: Enables California to pass a responsible budget on time through majority vote, as opposed to the current 2/3rd requirement, which allows a few extremist legislators to hold up the budget & make unreasonable demands, such as corporation tax breaks.

We must also OPPOSE and VOTE NO on:

Proposition 26: Would allow wealthy corporations to blow another billion-dollar in our budget by making it easier for wealthy corporations to get away with polluting or causing health, environmental and other damages without paying mitigation fees. Prop 26 also imposes a supermajority to levy fees.

To learn more about these proposition - be sure to check out the HHS Network's November 2 Ballot Resource Page, available here.

And click here to see the 5 simple things your organization can do for this year's election!

Stop Deportation of formerly incarcerated Youth Advocate!

by Erin Pangilinan

Xiao Fei "Eddy" Zheng, an Asian American immigrant community leader, faces deportation to China, yet again.


In the 1980s, 16-year-old Zheng and his family faced language barriers that kept them from fully understanding that he was found guilty of an aggravated felony and going to serve over 20 years in prison. After being released in 2007, Zheng was in danger of immediate deportation due to his status as a legal permanent resident (non-U.S. citizen) with an aggravated felony. But he threw himself into becoming a contributing member of his local San Francisco Bay Area community.

Zheng has distinguished himself as a leader for prisoner rehabilitation, earning his Associates degree and organizing the first poetry slam at San Quentin State Prison. His current work as a Project Manager in Oakland at the Community Youth Center focuses on youth violence prevention in the Asian American Pacific Islander community, striving to keep at-risk youth out of prison. In recognition of his desire and ability to serve, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed Zheng to the San Francisco Reentry Council, which helps ex-offenders in transition back into society. Zheng also found the time to publish Other: an Asian and Pacific Islander Prisoners' Anthology in 2009 2007.

Over the past few years, several campaigns launched by the Asian American community have protested Zheng's potential deportation and advocated for a stay of removal. In the more recent call to action, more support beyond the Asian American community is needed in requesting a pardon allowing him to stay in the U.S. with his wife and family permanently, resolving his status in a positive direction once and for all.

Zheng's dedication to his community has won him many supporters. In July of this year, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors signed a resolution supporting Eddy Zheng's stay of removal. Various public leaders like Congressman Mike Honda, Congresswoman Judy Chu, and several California State Senators have also recognized his work. Uprooting him would be a great loss to the at-risk youth of the Bay Area.

Zheng has done more than enough to pay back his debt to society and deserves a pardon, which he filed for in September 2010, from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to stay in the U.S. Sign this petition to tell the Governor to pardon Eddy Zheng.

War Zones Close to Home

Written by Isaac Acosta, Ella Baker Center

When I think of war zones, I imagine landscapes of rocks and desert, soldiers crouching under the Iraqi or Afghani sun, bullets zipping back and forth, and improvised explosive devices. War zones seem distant from our lives, something that happens in foreign lands instead of our own neighborhoods. However, war is in fact in our backyards; it is something close to us, and affects people that do not wear army fatigues.

I recently came across a study connecting the rates of violence experienced by youth with rates of mental health impacts on those communities. According to the National Urban League, the US has an epidemic of violence among youth. Especially in urban areas where opportunities for poor youth of color are few, guns, drugs and violence are common. It is no surprise that urban youth experience one of the most detrimental consequences of these domestic war conditions—post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Courtesy Ella Baker Center

Post traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety related condition in which someone persistently relives the traumatic events they have experienced. Dreams, flashbacks, hallucinations and even loud noises can take a person back to that traumatic event. PTSD is very common for soldiers and civilians who have lived in a war zone. Therefore, its no surprise that urban youth who witness violence such as homicides, beatings, shootings, and robberies, would also suffer.

When I first read the National Urban League’s report, I thought, “How would I be impacted if I experienced the same thing? Who would I go to?” I can only imagine how it might feel to be at the point where breaking down seemed just easier than going to school and building a better future for myself and community.

The National Urban League calls for more school and parental involvement to support students with these same questions. Youth are in school for a large part of their day and nearly every student goes to school, so it makes sense that schools can act as centers for social services and support for these health issues. Youth already face so many challenges, in an increasingly difficult world; the last thing youth need is the added factor of PTSD.

However, we need to learn more about the link between mental health and violence in our communities. Our local and federal governments must fund additional research and programs that can tackle this problem.

The study also recommends an increased collaboration between community organizations, families, schools, youth and mental health providers. That is what inspired me to get involved in violence prevention by working with the Heal the Streets youth fellowship at the Ella Baker Center. No matter what your position is in the world, no one should be denied a life free of violence. We all must come together to address violence as a community issue and transform our cities from war zones to safe and thriving homes.

Issac-Alonso Acosta is a 4th year student at UC Berkeley studying public health. He is interning at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in the Heal the Streets Campaign.

Toxic Persons - New research shows precisely how the prison-to-poverty cycle does its damage

Written by: Sasha Abramsky




Courtesy Flickr.com

Forty years after the United States began its experimentation with mass incarceration policies, the country is increasingly divided economically. In new research published in the review Daedalus, a group of leading criminologists coordinated by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (which paid me to consult on this project) argued that much of that growing inequality, which Slate's Timothy Noah has chronicled, is linked to the increasingly widespread use of prisons and jails.

It's well-known that the United States imprisons drastically more people than other Western countries. Here are the specifics: We now imprison more people in absolute numbers and per capita than any other country on earth. With 5 percent of the world population, the U.S. hosts upward of 20 percent of its prisoners. This is because the country's incarceration rate has roughly quintupled since the early 1970s. About 2 million Americans currently live behind bars in jails, state prisons, and federal penitentiaries, and many millions more are on parole or probation or have been in the recent past. In 2008, as a part of an "American Exception" series exploring the U.S. criminal-justice system, New York Times reporter Adam Liptak pointed out that overseas criminologists were "mystified and appalled" by the scale of American incarceration. States like California now spend more on locking people up than on funding higher education.


Advertisement

In devastating detail in Daedalus, the sociologists Bruce Western of Harvard and Becky Pettit of the University of Washington have shown how poverty creates prisoners and how prisons in turn fuel poverty, not just for individuals but for entire demographic groups. Crunching the numbers, they concluded that once a person has been incarcerated, the experience limits their earning power and their ability to climb out of poverty even decades after their release. It's a vicious feedback loop that is affecting an ever-greater percentage of the adult population and shredding part of the fabric of 21st-century American society.

In 1980, one in 10 black high-school dropouts were incarcerated. By 2008, that number was 37 percent. Western and Pettit calculated that if current incarceration trends hold, fully 68 percent of African-American male high school dropouts born from 1975 to 1979 (at the start of the upward trend in incarceration rates) will spend time living in prison at some point in their lives, as the chart below shows.

Then, given the staggering scale of black incarceration, the authors looked at the effect on employment data if prisoners were factored into the unemployment numbers generated by the government. Using that more realistic measure of unemployment, they found that fewer than 30 percent of black male high school dropouts are currently employed. Seventy percent are jobless. Those are the sorts of unemployment figures one associates with failed Third World states rather than the largest, wealthiest economy on earth. And they augur ill for long-term social stability.

It gets uglier. When high school dropouts buck the trend by coming out of prison and finding steady work, they overwhelmingly hit a dead end in terms of earnings. Western and Pettit found that after being out of prison for 20 years, less than one-quarter of ex-cons who haven't finished high school were able to rise above the bottom 20 percent of income earners, a far lower percentage than for high-school dropouts who don't go to prison. They conclude that the ex-cons end up passing on their economic handicap, and by extension the propensity of ending up behind bars, to their children and their children's children in turn. As evidence, they cite recent surveys indicating children of prisoners are more likely to live in poverty, to end up on welfare, and to suffer the sorts of serious emotional problems that tend to make holding down jobs more difficult.

University of California at Berkeley professor of law Jonathan Simon writes that these men and women in many ways become the human equivalent of underwater homes bought with subprime mortgages—they are "toxic persons" in the way those homes have been defined as "toxic assets," condemned to failure.

Last year, for the first time since 1972, the total number of people in prison in America declined. That's a good thing. It suggests that legislators, along with the broader voting public, are finally waking up to the huge, and unsustainable, financial costs that states are absorbing by keeping large numbers of low-end offenders locked up. But the reasons for scaling back the prison system ought not to be framed solely as a cost-cutting measure that's necessary but nasty. As this new research so clearly shows, locking up poor people in historically unprecedented numbers has undermined one of America's most durable, and valuable, traits—social mobility.


For the report by Western and Pettit go to:
"Incarceration & social inequality"
By Bruce Western and Becky Pettit
Daedalus Summer 2010, Vol. 139, No. 3, Pages 8-19

How mass incarceration creates historically disproportionate long-term social inequality among African American men.

© 2010 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences


http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00019


Other new research can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org

The Truth about Measure S

Written by: CURB

Since 1980, California has built 23 prisons and one university. This construction has been matched by harsher sentences, increased policing, and a shift in financial priorities from health and human services to policing and prisons. These changes have caused the prison population to go from 20,000 to 170,000—more than any other state—proving that the number of cages determines the number of people locked in them. The trend for the past thirty years has been clear: California builds a new prison, fills the prison to over its capacity, and then builds another.

Measure S is a unique opportunity to stop that trend. California has been given a federal court order to reduce its prison overcrowding by 43,000 over the next two years. Both the District Court 3 Judge Panel and the Expert Panel on Adult Offender and Recidivism Reduction Programs agree that we cannot build our way out of this problem. If Santa Barbara county builds another jail, the State will avoid any real plans for reducing overcrowding and instead will shift the cost and suffering due to overcrowding to Santa Barbara County jails and taxpayers.

!!VOTE “NO” ON MEASURE S!!

 What is Measure S?

Measure S is a ½ cent sales tax that will generate approximately $30 million - $15 to build a new jail, $5 to cops and firefighters, and $5 to mental health services.
What is the truth about Measure S?

Proponents want you to believe that Measure S is an answer to overcrowding and mental health needs. But Measure S will only increase the prison population and continue a trend of prioritizing imprisonment over social welfare.

We don’t need another jail!

How will this affect you?

More jails means more arrests, especially for poor people and people of color in Santa Barbara County. If Santa Barbara County residents are prepared to increase our taxes, we need to prioritize community basic needs like: affordable housing, education, living wage jobs, and medical and mental healthcare – not another jail!

Measure S is Dangerous

A new jail will not improve conditions and will increase the prison population. It will not make us safer. It will not address overcrowding. The trend for the past thirty years has been clear: California builds a new prison, fills the prison to over its capacity, and then builds another. It will mean more people denied their basic needs. It will mean more people get locked up!

!!VOTE “NO” ON MEASURE S!!

For more information about stopping prison spending, visit us at http://www.curbprisonspending.org/

High Cost of Crime

Written by: Charles M. Blow

When times get hard and talk turns to spending and budgets, there is one area that gets short shrift: the cost of crime and our enormous criminal justice system. For instance, how much do you think a single murder costs society? According to researchers at Iowa State University, it is a whopping $17.25 million.


Those researchers analyzed 2003 data from cases in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas and calculated the figure based on “victim costs, criminal justice system costs, lost productivity estimates for both the victim and the criminal, and estimates on the public’s resulting willingness to pay to prevent future violence.” That willingness to prevent future violence includes collateral costs like expenditures for security measures, insurance and government welfare programs. It’s hard to believe that they could calculate the collateral costs with any real degree of accuracy, but I understand the concept.

(They also calculated that each rape costs $448,532, each robbery $335,733, each aggravated assault $145,379 and each burglary $41,288.)

By their estimates, more than 18,000 homicides that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded in 2007 alone will cost us roughly $300 billion. That’s about as much as we’ve spent over nine years fighting the war in Afghanistan. That’s more than the 2010 federal budget for the Departments of Education, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Labor and Homeland Security combined. Does anyone else see a problem here?

Although the annual murder rate in the U.S. has fallen to historic lows, it is still at least twice as high as that of any of the other rich countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. In fact, it’s even higher than in countries like Rwanda, Angola and Mozambique. And there are troubling signs this year as big cities around the country — New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit — are seeing sharp rises in murder rates.

Our approach to this crime problem for more than two decades has been the mass incarceration of millions of Americans and the industrializing of our criminal justice system. Over the last 25 years, the prison population has quadrupled. This is a race to the bottom and a waste of human capital. A prosperous country cannot remain so by following this path.


Many crimes could have been prevented if the offenders had had the benefit of a competent educational system and a more expansive, better-financed social service system. Sure, some criminals are just bad people, but more are people who took a wrong turn, got lost and ended up on the wrong path. Those we can save.


We have a choice to make: pay a little now or a lot later. Seems like a clear choice to me. But I’m not in Washington where they view clarity as an affliction of the weak.

California Ballot Initiatives 2010

Written by: the Women's Foundation of California                      

Because many of the propositions on the ballot affect the state budget and the generation of revenue, they will have an effect on balancing the budget. Too often, that’s done through cutting critical safety net programs, which disproportionately affect low-income women and children. Central to the Foundation’s work is a commitment to supporting the health and well-being of low-income women and families, immigrants and communities of color. Our positions reflect that commitment.

VOTE YES on Proposition 19

Marijuana

Allows adults 21 years of age and older to possess, transport and cultivate one ounce of marijuana for personal consumption

This proposition lets local government regulate and tax commercial marijuana-related activities, which will generate much needed revenue for the state. Decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana will reduce the costly incarceration of nonviolent women and men accused of petty drug charges. Allowing law enforcement to focus on violent crime will enhance safety for all.

VOTE NO on Proposition 20

Congressional Redistricting by Commission

Amends the constitution to expand the authority of the Citizens Redistricting Commission so that they can determine the districts for the US House of Representatives

The Citizens Redistricting Commission is a new entity. Currently the Commission is charged with drawing lines for California’s Senate, Assembly and State Board of Equalization districts. Before expanding its authority to draw districts for Congress, the Commission should demonstrate that its existence reduces partisanship and increases accountability.

VOTE YES on Proposition 21

State Parks

Creates a yearly license surcharge of $18 to fund state parks and wildlife programs

This proposition creates a dedicated revenue stream for California’s parks and wildlife. It frees up money from the state’s General Fund that could be reallocated to other critical safety net programs. Surcharged vehicles gain free entrance to state parks.

VOTE NO on Proposition 22

Transportation and Local Government Funds

Prohibits the state from using tax revenues that fund transportation or local government projects and services

This measure amends the constitution and severely restricts the state’s ability to use and borrow from local and state tax revenues to balance the budget. It increases General Fund costs by at least $1 billion and ups the odds that the budget will be balanced through cuts that disproportionately affect low-income women and families.

VOTE NO on Proposition 23

Global Warming Law

Suspends AB 32 until unemployment is below 5.5% for a full year

This measure halts efforts to address climate change. AB 32 encourages innovation in the growing green sector, which offers training opportunities and well-paying jobs for low-income women and men. The current rate of unemployment is 15.3% and economists don’t think it will drop to 5.5% for years to come.

VOTE YES on Proposition 24

Business Taxes

Repeals recent legislation that allows businesses to carry back losses, share tax credits and lower taxable income

Repealing this measure closes a corporate tax loophole. Businesses would be taxed the way they were prior to the 2008 and 2009 changes. California would receive roughly $1.3 billion in revenue to fund schools and other General Fund programs that enhance the well-being of women and families.

VOTE YES on Proposition 25

2/3 Vote to Pass State Budget

Amends the constitution to reduce the vote requirement to pass the budget from 2/3 to a simple majority

This measure aligns California with the 47 other states that pass a budget through a majority vote. It’s one step toward improving governance in California. To ensure timely passage of the budget, a further step would be companion legislation that reduces the 2/3 vote on raising taxes to a simple majority vote.

VOTE NO on Proposition 26

2/3 Vote to Raise Taxes and Fees

Amends the state constitution and requires a 2/3 vote to enact or increase fees

This measure shifts the financial burden of environmental hazards from industry to the state. It reverses the Sinclair decision which allows California to “impose fees on industries whose activities result in health, environmental, or social burdens on society.” It would be almost impossible to raise revenue to ensure Californians are protected from the damage caused by pollution, hazardous waste and other toxins.

VOTE NO on Proposition 27

Redistricting by the Legislature

Amends the constitution to return the redistricting process to the legislature It seems short-sighted to dismantle the Citizens Redistricting Commission before it’s been tested. The selection process for Commission members was rigorous so as to have fair representation from citizens. The Commission needs a chance to fulfill its mandate to advance competitive elections.

Cracks Emerge In Supposed California Budget Fix, And It Could Burst Open Today

Written by: Gus Lubin

Arnold and the California Legislature managed a good headline last week by promising to have closed the $19 billion budget hole. Suspiciously, few details were revealed about the new budget until this week.

Now with the full plan going on vote today, critics warn it may come unraveled.

The OC Register editorial warns: "Celebration may be premature. In fact, the real legislative battles may just be beginning. We're skeptical that the budget terms Democratic and Republican leaders reportedly agreed to behind closed doors will stand up, particularly once partisan die-hards and affected constituencies began chipping away."

Other parts of the balanced budget could be a fantasy. For instance, it counts on $5 billion coming from the federal government -- which seems unlikely. Schwarzenegger also upgrades revenue expectations by $1.4 billion -- without raising taxes.

We're reminded of the "bag of tricks" New York uses to balance the budget.

If the federal government doesn't come through with a bailout, California is looking at this austerity plan >


Blog post courtesy of the Business Insider - Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/california-budget-fantasy-2010-10#ixzz11VBT0r00

Recent Increases in Underage American Sex Trafficking Calls for Urgent Solution

Written by: Jasmine Walker

Courtesy of Child Trafficking

Sex trafficking for American children has spiraled out of control. Every year over 100,000 victims are trafficked and forced to work on street corners, through websites, and in brothels.

“Child sex trafficking of American children into prostitution has become a national epidemic. The average age an American child is first bought and sold for sex is 12-13 years old,” stated Change.org. “While they are being repeatedly sold to men and raped, they often suffer from violence, trauma, sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse, and long-term health problems.”

This can lead to a vicious cycle of violence and continued abuse for these children. If they do not receive the proper care and rehabilitation, some children often become the abuser.


Today, access to young children seems to be easier than ever, especially with online sites such as Craigslist. Before the adult-services section was eliminated off of the Craigslist site predators were a click away from soliciting the services of an adult or child prostitute. The scary thought is that many have already succeeded in ordering a prostitute and will continue to unless a solution is made.


“A big part of the problem with Craigslist, we believe it actually increased the number of women being put into prostitution,” said Ken Franzblau, director of the anti-trafficking program at the women’s rights NGO Equality Now. Even though the adult-services section was cancelled it does not prevent men from diverting to additional avenues to find a girl.


This shows how much precedence sites like Craigslist have on the sex industry. “Craigslist was the go-to place,” said Malika Saada Saa, the founder of The Rebecca Project for Human Rights.


Many of the exploited children are runaways or throwaways that somehow linked up with a pimp or were kidnapped by one and sold into the sex industry. Internet sex trafficking brings large profits for pimps with a lower risk of getting caught then street prostitution.

There is an urgent need for a solution to help get these young children off of the streets and into a safe environment where they can receive proper care and rehabilitation services.


We can start by supporting the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victim Support Act of 2010 (H.R. 5575). “If passed, the bill will award six block grants to state or local entities who have a plan to investigate, prosecute and deter sex trafficking, while at the same time providing special services and shelter to victims. It would also help local law enforcement reach out to at-risk populations, like runaway and homeless youth, before the pimps do. And it would help fill the massive gap between the number of children being exploited in America and the number of shelter beds ready for them,” stated Change.org. Let’s support our American victims.

Send your US Representative a letter to show your support of H.R. 5575 today by taking action here.