Community News
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Have you heard!?! Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles)
introduced SB 966, the Repeal Ineffective Sentencing Enhancement Act (The RISE
Act) for prior drug convictions. The RISE Act will abolish expensive and
fruitless sentencing improvement, emulating the Legislature’s and voters’ unity
to essentially dismantle from mass incarceration; in order to invest back into
the vast need of public services for the communities.
The objective of SB 966 is to:
- Save California taxpayers money to reinvest back into the
needed community-based programs
- Reduce the racial disproportion within the criminal justice complex
- Address the severe sentencing
- Re-establish balance back in the judicial proceedings
- Abstain the ruthless punishment towards individuals that
endure substance abuse disorder
Not to mention, SB 966 wants to show that the deteriorated
pursuit has demonstrated and become immensely expensive; by defrauding state
and local appropriations that should be disbursed to social and health providers,
schools, and channels that veritably diminishes drug use.
Altogether, incarceration can progress to a higher amount of
crime by damaging family and community dynamics. For the many individuals who
re-enter back into society from incarceration, are challenged with
overwhelming barriers in seeking employment, housing, and education.
In the long run, elongated sentences do not reduce
recidivism, nor does it impede on the distribution, use, and recovery of drugs.
By:
Porscha Dillard
Special Project Coordinator
Time For Change Foundation
State Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, has suspended her latest bid to reverse a law barring families that conceive additional children while on welfare from receiving increases to their grant.
Mitchell said she would not continue forward this year with Senate Bill 23 to repeal a law Mitchell contends perpetuates the negative concept of the “welfare queen,” a woman who has babies while on welfare to collect more cash assistance. Mitchell’s bill is currently awaiting a vote on the Assembly floor, and she said she would instead push to get the policy into next year’s budget.
“How would we pay for it?” Mitchell said. “Because of the huge price tag, I’m going to continue working with the administration during the interim.”
Overturning the “maximum family grant” would cost an estimated $205 million in the first year. SB 23 passed the Senate this spring, but its prospects dimmed when Gov. Jerry Brown left it out of the final budget deal in June.
Mitchell said she had not changed tactics out of concern that the bill would fail in the Assembly or be vetoed by Brown.
“I’m confident that they agree with the policy,” she said. “I will be waiting with bated breath for January 10,” she added, referring to the date by which Brown must release his budget proposal.
Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article34058808.html
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article34058808.html#storylink=cpy
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation prohibiting the use of grand juries in California in cases where police officers use lethal force, a response to distrust of the grand jury process following the deaths of unarmed black men in other states.
Proponents of Senate Bill 227 argued the grand jury process is too secretive and allowed prosecutors to avoid decision-making responsibility in politically charged cases.
“One doesn’t have to be a lawyer to understand why SB 227 makes sense,” the bill’s author, Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, said in a prepared statement after Brown announced signing the bill Tuesday. “The use of the criminal grand jury process, and the refusal to indict as occurred in Ferguson and other communities of color, has fostered an atmosphere of suspicion that threatens to compromise our justice system.”
Law enforcement groups representing district attorneys and police chiefs opposed the bill. The Democratic governor signed the measure without comment.
Brown also signed Senate Bill 411, clarifying that people can shoot video of police.
“Today, California makes it unequivocal – you have the right to record,” Sen. Ricardo Lara, the bill’s author, said in a prepared statement.
Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article30736917.html
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article30736917.html#storylink=cpy
