PETITION: Restore Two More Days of Visiting in CA Prisons!

Please print this petition, collect signatures, and return it to: Laura Magnani, American Friends Service Committee, 65 9th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

Text of Petition

To:     Scott Kernan, Secretary, CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
To:     Nancy Skinner, Chair, Senate Public Safety Committee

We, the undersigned, believe that giving prisoners access to visits from family and friends is an essential part of rehabilitation. Research shows that building relationships with the community is one of the surest ways to prevent recidivism, once people are released. It is a matter of public safety.  We therefore petition the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the California State Legislature to restore 2 more days of visiting time each week. By doing so, people will no longer experience the frustration of not being able to schedule appointments due to limited time slots. This will accommodate those who work weekends, and more visits can take place.

We recommend that visits be resumed from 3-8 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, beginning with the following institutions: Solano, Lancaster, Kern Valley, Salinas Valley, Centinela, California State Prison (CSP)-Corcoran and Substance Abuse Training Facility (SATF)-Corcoran. Other institutions close to population centers, or experiencing high demand for visiting, should be added as soon as possible.

Feb 21 Legislative Hearing on Video Visitation in Jails

VIDEO of the Hearing!  Powerful testimony from family and formerly incarcerated perspectives: Zoe Willmott and Anita Wills of Essie Justice Group, Michael Cortez of Project WHAT! (alumni), and compelling public comment.

The below post was updated Feb 16, 2017

On Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 10am in Sacramento, there will be a Joint Legislative Hearing on video visitation in county jails. It will be hosted by the Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittees on Public Safety.

JOINT HEARING
PUBLIC SAFETY AND BUDGET AND FISCAL REVIEW

CA Senate Subcommittee No. 5 on Corrections, Public Safety and the Judiciary and CA Assembly Subcommittee No. 5 on Public Safety

• Hearing Subject: Looking Through the Screen: The Effects of Video Visitation on County Jail Inmates and their Families

• 10:00 a.m. — John L. Burton Hearing Room (Rm 4203), CA State Capitol, Sacramento 95814

• Chairs: Senator Nancy Skinner and Assembly Member Shirley Weber

• FINAL AGENDA (pdf) for the Hearing

Help protect in-person visitation! We believe that there will be an opportunity for public comment. Please consider speaking or providing a written statement if you have experience with in-person or video visitation.

We are in a period when many counties are building or seeking to build new jails.  Some counties are building jails without facilities for in-person visiting.  Instead, they are setting up video-visitation as the only visiting method.  There are many problems with video visitation. In-person visitation is crucial to the well-being of incarcerated people and their families.

Last year, the legislature passed SB 1157 (introduced by Senator Holly Mitchell), to require in-person visiting in county jails, but unfortunately Gov. Brown vetoed the bill. SB 1157 would have allowed counties to install and use video visitation as a supplemental option, but would have protected in-person jail visits from being eliminated and sacrificed to the video visitation industry.

It is important to protect in-person visits for incarcerated people and their loved ones in California jails. We are glad that the CA legislature remains concerned about this issue.

• Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity members will be carpooling to Sacramento on Feb 21st.  Contact: 510.426.5322

• Also, Bernadette Rabuy of the Prison Policy Initiative invites you to contact her if you would like to provide public comment at the hearing  brabuy@prisonpolicy.org.

Below is an extensive list of articles and reports about video visitation from the Prison Policy Institute.

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.