Network On Women In Prison

Programs: All of us or none: in 2017, weve continued to build our alliances with organizations that are not aouon but close allies to support their efforts to expand the rights of formerly incarcerated people. We sent one of our senior organizers from texas to florida to help formerly incarcerated leaders use the voting access network to identify households that have voters and formerly incarcerated people. We have been in communication with formerly incarcerated leaders in atlanta and chicago about developing new chapters of aouon. We are planning our regional gatherings in those cities in october and november and expect to have chapters established by the end of the year. We increased our support to our chapters in texas and north carolina and invested in leadership development of leaders in nc and tx. We provide technical assistance, support, fiscal sponsorship, and materials to aouon leaders. North carolina especially has been able to strengthen their btb campaign. They not only passed ban the box, but are also gathering data about the implementation and learning how many folks are actually being employed after the law was passed. The numbers in durham so far have been promising. Our chapters also support each other. Our organizer, steve, from texas is training our other chapters in voter engagement and our nc chapter has been helping generate national support for our btb bill in california, ab 1008.

policy advocacy: 2017 was a strong legislative year for us. We launched our elder freeman policy fellowship and employed two formerly incarcerated people to help lead our state legislative work in partnership with our policy director and the support of other staff. They learned the legislative and administrative law making process from start to finish - developing policy ideas, writing the language of the law to be introduced, working with elected officials to move proposed bills through both houses of the legislature and signed by the governor. Weve also significantly increased our work with young people. We hired a youth organizer to engage young people in west oakland. We have surveyed the young people about their experiences with law enforcement, how incarceration and gentrification have impacted their families, and what they think young people in oakland need. We will continue this research with youth in other parts of oakland and the data will continue to inform the programming we develop for youth. We also mobilized over 300 people, including 100 young people, to sacramento for a day of advocacy training and a day of advocacy meetings in the state capitol. The people we mobilized were there to share their experiences and concerns about barriers to employment, bail reform, and sentencing reform.

family unity project: in 2017 we taught 4 family law classes in womens prisons - three at the federal correctional institution, dublin and one at the california institution for women (ciw) with a total of 118 attendees. We conducted an advanced class at ciw focused on building the leadership of the women in the class by training them to support other women in family law matters. We completed six legal trainings in the community attended by dozens of attorneys and legal advocates. Some of our trainings include, civil rights for people and families impacted by the criminal justice system andparole after shu. In addition to the legal trainings we provide in prison and in the community, we educate currently incarcerated parents about their rights through legal correspondence. This year we have mailed over 800 pieces of legal correspondence, many to parents, educating them about their rights regarding family matters and other legal issues. We released a report on our continued work around anti-shackling. Weve continued to monitor compliance of the anti-shackling law at the county level. Our research and monitoring on compliance has shown promising results. There are currently 12 counties that are out of compliance with the law. For most of them, the non-compliance is related to the notification requirement. We are working on a strategy to ensure that women are being notified of their rights in all county jail facilities. We hosted a national convening to develop a national agenda and strategy to pass anti-shackling laws in other states. The convening is scheduled for october 14-16 in indio, california. Weve also continued to do family law trainings inside prison and outside prison for lawyers, advocates, and family members. We completed 3 legal trainings in 2017 attended by over 200 advocates. We have continued to work with californians united for a responsible budget and others to oppose expansion of prison and jail beds and to promote expansion of alternatives to incarceration. For lspc, most of this work has been focused in san francisco while providing support where we can to other county jail expansion opposition efforts.