Community News
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Chanting “Black lives matter!” and staging a massive “die-in,” scores of people rallied Wednesday at the state Capitol in support of legislation that seeks to stamp out racial profiling by law enforcement.
Protesters marched through the streets and then crowded the halls outside the office of Gov. Jerry Brown, demanding his signature for Assembly Bill 953, which still must clear the state Senate before it reaches the governor’s desk. It would require law enforcement to gather and report data on stops, something advocates hope will illuminate the extent of racial profiling.
The bill, by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, was one of several police-focused measures introduced this year amid tensions and violence between officers and communities. Critics, in urging its defeat in the Legislature, have derided the proposal as too costly.
Though demonstrators chanted for an audience with Brown, he was not in Sacramento. Instead, Weber called on Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, to accept a petition from the demonstrators.
“You’re making your voice heard today. That’s your right, your responsibility,” Atkins said. “We’re going to keep working on this.”
After addressing the crowd outside the Capitol, Weber said her bill was necessary because of California’s comparatively high death rate at the hands of police.
“When we look at the issues of racial profiling we discover that African Americans and Latinos are stopped two and three times more than anybody else, and yet have a lower arrest record,” she said, as activists read the names of victims. “So, obviously you’re stopping them without a cause to arrest them.”
The stop, Weber said, becomes the foundation “for other things happening” after.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article33543921.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article33543921.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article33543921.html#storylink=cpy
“Family unity and stability have profound impacts on children’s lifelong health,” according to a health impact assessment of Proposition 47 released today by Human Impact Partners (HIP), a nonprofit that analyzes the effects of current and proposed public policies on community health. Proposition 47, “The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act,” will appear on the November 4 statewide ballot and would reduce California’s reliance on incarceration for nonviolent crimes.
HIP’s study estimates that over 10,000 children could be affected by the measure due to a resentencing option for parents who are currently incarcerated. Moreover, as many as 5,800 children a year may not have to see their parent go to prison for a nonviolent crime in the future.
The CBP’s own analysis of Proposition 47, released earlier this month, discussed the negative health impact of incarceration on individuals and their communities. As parents experience periods of incarceration, their children can be exposed to persistent poverty, food insecurity, frequent relocations, and repeated abandonment. This often leads to childhood behavioral difficulties, lower academic test scores, and an increased likelihood of contact with the juvenile justice system.
Incarcerating parents increases children’s likelihood of developing health problems, even when other risk factors — such as chronic poverty, access to health care, and the safety of the neighborhood — are taken into account. In a new study, Kristin Turney, assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine, found that childhood learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), behavioral problems, developmental delays, and speech or language problems are all significantly related to parental incarceration. Having a parent incarcerated was in some cases more detrimental than divorce or the death of a parent.
As these youth transition into adulthood, many play a supporting role for their parents, which can put a strain on their own lives. Children of Re-Entry is a youth-led New America Media project that is working to document the stories of young people as they grapple with their parents’ incarceration and subsequent return home. In 21-year-old Alisha’s words:
A part of me knows that I’m my mom’s backbone, almost. When I’m around she tries harder. But sometimes that’s not good enough. I don’t want to look over my shoulder all the time. Like, I don’t want to worry about coming home and finding my mom not okay.
Addressing the health needs of children with incarcerated parents is a common-sense public safety approach. Untreated and unaddressed health issues as children can lead to future problems, such as drug addiction, that are prevalent in the criminal justice population. Supporting family stability would likely improve health outcomes and educational and employment prospects for these youth. Reducing unnecessary incarceration for nonviolent crimes could be one way to support family stability and thereby strengthen the long-term well-being of our communities.
— Selena Teji
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News Bulletin
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January 9, 2014
Statement
from Ellen Wu, Executive Director of CPEHN,
on the California Budget Proposal for 2014-15
Governor Brown’s proposal for the 2014-15
state budget, released yesterday, increases funding to health and human
services but misses an important opportunity to restore some of the
devastating cuts that have impacted the health of California’s communities
of color.
The budget proposal includes a $670 million increase to Medi-Cal, mostly
for already-enacted implementation of the Affordable Care Act. And while
the proposed budget “forgives” the past years of uncollected cuts to
Medi-Cal providers, it leaves in place a 10% reduction of Medi-Cal rates.
Additionally, the budget proposal does not restore any of the other
previous cuts to Medi-Cal benefits.
For more than a decade our communities have been asked to endure painful
cuts to services due to structural deficits in the state budget. The
passage of Proposition 30 in 2012 has been critical to providing much
needed revenue for the state. California must use this opportunity to
demonstrate a commitment to its most vulnerable communities by restoring previous
cuts to our health and human services programs as well as making sure
Californians who remain uninsured have access to affordable coverage.
Visit our Policy Center for a detailed summary of the budget
proposal.
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© 2014
/ California Pan-Ethnic Health Network / info@cpehn.org
MAIN OFFICE:
1221 Preservation Park Way, Suite 200, Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 832-1160 / Fax: (510) 832-1175
SACRAMENTO OFFICE:
1225 8th Street, Suite 470, Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 447-1299 / Fax: (916) 447-1292
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