LIFER FAMILY SEMINARS (March 16 & April 6, 2019)

Hope you can attend one of the first 2 seminars this year, March 16 in Sacramento and April 6 in Yorba Linda. We’re doing some new things this year; for a start, at our Sacramento event both Jennifer Shaffer of the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH) and CDCR Secretary Ralph Diaz will be speaking in person, providing insight and answering questions.  For Yorba Linda and other events in coming months, we’ll have a video of both Diaz and Shaffer–the best we can do, absent cloning.

Also, for those who have an understanding of the basics of the parole policy, we’re offering a deeper dive into some of those areas, via small groups in the afternoon, concentrating on several areas, from new laws (commutation 1437 and 1391), to how to prepare a parole plan, to what to expect and do after the hearing, whichever way it goes.  And–for those newer to the journey, we’ll also provide a small group to outline how the whole system works.

Be sure to sign up, the easiest way is via our new and improved website, on the Events page, which, for the first time will allow you to register with a credit card.  We’re finally in the 21st Century!

Staff,
Life Support Alliance
Together we can do this, one step at a time.

Updates on 2019 laws, policies & procedures.

Lifer Family Seminar
Have Hope*Get Help*Come Home

Saturday, March 16, 2019
8 am-3:30 pm
Capital Christian Center, 9470 Micron Ave, Sacramento, CA 95827

Parking on site, directions and maps provided prior to the event. Registration and check in begins at 8 am.

This is a pivotal time for lifers; get the latest, most accurate and complete news on parole outlook, challenges of release and re-entry.

A Day of LEARNING and SUPPORT. Your Lifer CAN Come Home
Learn from officials, attorneys, advocates and successfully paroled lifers

What you and your inmate need to know

• Insight & Causative Factors
• Comprehensive Risk Assessment
• Parole plans & re-entry

$35 up to 3 days prior; $40 at the door
Pre-Registration Requested
Seminar fee includes lunch & materials

Send Check or Money Order to

• LSA, P.O.Box 277, Rancho Cordova, CA 95741 (sorry, no credit or debit cards)
• Payment may be made also via PayPal; See EVENTS page at lifesupportalliance.org

LIFE SUPPORT ALLIANCE  Promoting Public Safety & Fiscal Responsibility
Publisher of CALIFORNIA LIFER NEWSLETTER & Lifer-Line newsletter
staff@lifesupportalliance.org  (916) 402-3750

First Southern California Seminar of 2019

Report back from Prisoner Representatives’ first monitoring meeting with CDCR

published by the Center for Constitutional Rights
May 23, 2016

By Todd Ashker

Last September, in Ashker v. Governor of California, California prisoners reached an historic settlement agreement with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) that is bringing an end to indefinite solitary confinement in California prisons. The Settlement Agreement includes hard-won (and unprecedented) periodic meetings between the CDCR and the prisoners who initiated the lawsuit and led the protests against long term solitary confinement. Below is a report back from the first of these meetings, from lead plaintiff in the case and prisoner representative, Todd Ashker.

I was very pleased to participate in this historic meeting with CDCR officials, which we negotiated in our Settlement Agreement.  I think it is the first time that representatives of prisoners have had this kind of discussion with leaders of any correction department; it is certainly the only time it has happened here in California, the world’s largest prison system.  We were especially pleased that high-ranking prison officials were at the meeting.

At the beginning of this first meeting, it became clear that there was a misunderstanding about its function.  CDCR thought the meeting was for us to listen to them.  Why would we put a term into our Settlement that would have us listen to them?  We listen to them every second of our lives.   We see the purpose of these calls as an opportunity for us to be heard and to have a discussion with people in authority.

Despite this initial confusion, we were able to lead the meeting. CDCR got unfiltered information from prisoners who know what is going on in their prison cells and yards.  We are a leadership group the CDCR knows.  They know we have integrity.  The information we shared at the meeting came not only from the experiences of us four main reps, but also from the other veterans of the SHU, members of our class who have written and met with our attorneys.

We raised in strong terms that some of us who have made it to General Population yards are essentially in modified SHUs (Security Housing Units), in some respects worse than Pelican Bay SHU, although in some respects better.   Conditions, policies and practices that we are experiencing in some of the General Population yards are not what we expected when we settled our case.  After spending decades in solitary we cannot accept many of these conditions.  Too many prisoners are simply warehoused, and there are not enough jobs or programs to give us skills, engage our minds and prepare us to return to our communities.  Guards need training in ‘professional’ behavior.   Bullying and humiliation should never be tolerated.

CDCR may have been surprised at the tenor, strength and substance of our approach.   We expect at the next meeting, we will all understand the agenda and purpose well ahead of time.   We also think a longer meeting will allow for a full discussion and useful interaction.  We hope CDCR officials come to welcome these historic meetings as useful because they will be if prisoners’ perspectives are heard, used and received by them.

For Immediate Release: Solitary Prisoners’ Lawyers Slam CDCR for Sleep Deprivation

10/29/15   Solitary Prisoners’ Lawyers Slam CDCR for Sleep Deprivation

Press Contact:  Mohamed Shehk – 408.910.2618  mohamed@criticalresistance.org
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

SAN FRANCISCO – Yesterday, lawyers for prisoners in the class action case Ashker v. Brown submitted a letter condemning Pelican Bay prison guards’ “wellness checks,” which have widely been viewed as sleep deprivation. The letter was submitted to United States Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas, and calls on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to put an end to the checks.

Last month, prisoners achieved a historic victory in the settlement of Ashker v. Brown where the indefinite long term solitary confinement was effectively ended in California, with Magistrate Judge Vadas currently monitoring implementation of the settlement terms.

The guards at Pelican Bay Security Housing Units have been conducting disruptive cell checks every 30 minutes around the clock for three months, causing prisoners widespread sleep disruption. The process is loud and according to prisoners, “the method and noise from the checks is torture.”

Attorneys representing Pelican Bay SHU prisoners have just completed extensive interviews with prisoners who demand that “the every 30-minute checks have to be stopped or people are going to get sick or worse.” In addition, they report that regular prison programs have been negatively impacted.

“To sleep is a fundamental human right,” said Anne Weills, a member of the prisoners’ legal team and one of the attorneys who conducted the interviews with prisoners in Pelican Bay. “To take away such a basic human right amounts to severe torture, adding to the already torturous conditions of being in solitary confinement.”

Most prisoners report low energy, exhaustion and fatigue. Most state that they have trouble concentrating. They try to read, but they nod off and/or can’t remember what they have read. Their writing is much slower (“I can’t think to write”), and describe the constant welfare checks as having a negative impact on their mental state.

While this recent attorney survey was specifically focusing on sleep deprivation and its effects, prisoners volunteered information about the negative impact of these frequent checks: yard policy and practice has reduced access to recreation, access to showers has been reduced, programs and meals are being delayed, and property for those newly transferred to Pelican Bay is still being delayed and withheld.

Sleep deprivation constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Prisoners and their attorneys are demanding that these checks be halted.

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Mohamed Shehk
Media and Communications Director
Critical Resistance
1904 Franklin St, Suite 504
Oakland, CA 94612
510.444.0484