DROP LWOP Rally & Lobby Day – Aug 6, 2018 in Sacramento

9am – 3pm LOBBYING
12pm RALLY & SPEAK OUT

CA State Capitol Building, 10th and L Streets, Sacramento, CA 95814

Join Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) members and California Coalition for Women Prisoners as we visit the capitol to present Governor Brown with our request for him to commute every Life Without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP) sentence in the state of California.

The noon Rally & Speak Out will feature formerly incarcerated survivors of Life Without Parole, statements and poetry from inside prison, dance performances, and more!

Over 5000 people are serving LWOP (Life Without the Possibility of Parole) sentences in California prisons. People of color are disproportionately sentenced to LWOP and of the nearly 200 people serving LWOP in California’s womens prisons, the overwhelming majority are survivors of abuse, including intimate partner battering, childhood abuse, sexual violence, and sex trafficking.  You can learn about their stories through A Living Chance – the digital story project that helped start the DROP LWOP Campaign. Life without parole is an inhumane sentence. It denies that people have the capacity to change, grow and be rehabilitated.

As Governor Brown nears the end of his term, he has granted an unprecedented number of commutations for people serving LWOP sentences.  Commuting a sentence does not guarantee release from prison, but it does guarantee that each person will have the right to see the Parole Board in their lifetime, rather than being sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison under a “living death penalty.”

Over 110 organizations have signed a letter asking Governor Brown to commute the sentences of all people serving Life Without Parole in California’s prisons to parole-eligible sentences. We will be delivering the letter to Governor Brown’s office. Come to Sacramento on August 6th!

Your organization can sign the letter here: https://droplwop.wordpress.com/letter-to-governor-brown/

⇒ Learn all about (and join!) the statewide campaign to DROP LWOP and secure sentence commutations for all people serving Life Without the Possibility of Parole  https://droplwop.wordpress.com/

 

More info about Rally & Lobby Day:
• from California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP)
https://womenprisoners.org/2018/07/drop-lwop-rally-lobby-day-august-6th/
• from Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB)
http://www.curbprisonspending.org/2018/07/05/correctionsbudget/

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/199371177555122/

#AbolishLWOP  #DropLWOP

Sleep Deprivation for Almost Three Months! Help STOP It

Last month, California prisoners locked in isolation achieved a groundbreaking legal victory in their ongoing struggle against the use of solitary confinement. 

This is a huge victory and there is still work to do.

The win effectively ended indefinite long-term solitary confinement, and greatly limited the prison administration’s ability to use the practice, widely seen as a form of torture.

Now, there is a dangerous practice in California prisons of guards doing so-called “security/welfare” checks every 30 minutes, 48 times a day. These checks are only being done in the isolation units, causing ongoing sleep deprivation for those prisoners.

We call for you to continue to stand with us and support the prisoners inside of solitary. 

Report and Photos from 1st Monthly Statewide Coordinated Actions to End Solitary Confinement, March 23

[This article was first published March 28, 2015 in the San Francisco Bay View ]

Statewide Coordinated Actions to End Solitary Confinement (SCATESC) began March 23, 2015. Actions were held in California from San Diego to Arcata (Arcata-Eureka, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, San Jose, Santa Cruz) and Philadelphia, Penn. Activists in more locations will be joining in on April 23 and the 23rd of each month. Below is a report from just one locality, Santa Cruz, which took a creative approach.

by Willow Katz

About 45 people attended the first day of Statewide Coordinated Actions to End Solitary Confinement (SCATESC), on March 23, 2015, at the Lighthouse on West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. We went there to see the ocean for so many SHU and solitary prisoners who talk about their dream to see the ocean again, including Luis Esquivel.

Oakland’s action was in Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th and Broadway, the scene of many, many struggles for justice in recent years. Readers are urged to come out in droves on April 23 and the 23rd of every month. We may not be able to rid the world of all evils, but we CAN end solitary confinement!

The actions are being held in response to a call by California prisoners. Proposals for action from Pelican Bay State Prison hunger strikers in November 2013 included “designating a certain date each month as Prisoner Rights Day. … Our supporters would gather in locations throughout California to expose [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] CDCR’s actions and rally support efforts to secure our rights. We can see this action growing from month to month as more people inside and out become aware of it and join our struggle.”

Actions were held March 23 in California – at Arcata, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, San Jose and Santa Cruz– and Philadelphia. Monterey is planning future actions, and we expect more actions statewide, nationally and internationally.

Activists Annie Kane and Jerry Elster check out the window slits atop Oakland City Hall. A city worker told them that behind the slits are SHU-like cells that are no longer used. – Photo: Kim Rohrbach