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Ending Mass Incarceration is on the Ballot

by Mike Wessler A guide to how 19 offices you may be asked to vote on can help end mass incarceration in America. Election Day is right around the corner. While presidential campaigns get most of the attention from the news media, many lesser-known down-ballot races...

Mass Incarceration – The Whole Pie

This report and comprehensive graphic provide the big picture: over 1.9 million people are locked up in more than 6,000 correctional facilities operated by thousands of agencies. The "whole pie" gives the public and policymakers the foundation to now consider the...

STOP LYING ABOUT CALIFORNIA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, July 31st, 2024 CONTACT: Tina Curiel, cjcjmedia@cjcj.org, (415) 621-5661 x. 103 --- NEW REPORT: STOP LYING ABOUT CALIFORNIA Reforms did not bring more crime. Rates are near record lows. SAN FRANCISCO – July 31st, 2024 – A new...

Crime in California Remains Well Below Historical Peaks

Crime in California Remains Well Below Historical Peaks

1. Crime in California Remains Well Below Historical Peaks California Budget and Policy Center article by Scott Graves, April 2024 Everyone wants to live in safe communities, and data show California continues to experience crime rates well below historical peaks. The...

Recent Studies by Prison Policy Institute

Death Penalty Death By Design: Part 1 by The Wren Collective, December, 2023 "In all 28 Harris County capital cases we reviewed, trial lawyers failed to uncover relevant evidence." https://www.wrencollective.org/_files/ugd/8fe8f0_fd475c291d07486188088f0d5c2ffa33.pdf...

SB94 TOOLKIT Now Available

SB94 TOOLKIT Now Available

TAKE ACTION! Please download this Toolkit [PDF] for use in support of SB 94. SB 94, Judicial Review of Old Sentences, authored by California State Senator Dave Cortese, would create rigorous sentencing review for some individuals serving life without parole for...

Collective Remake

Collective Remake

Collective REMAKE is a unique social enterprise designed to support the creation of worker-owned businesses in communities impacted by incarceration. A  worker cooperative is a for-profit business that is owned and managed by the people that work there. Workers come...

NPR: U.S. prison population is rapidly graying.

NPR: U.S. prison population is rapidly graying.

"When you think about geriatric medical needs, many of the prisons across the United States are not equipped or weren't designed that way, and so the systems are grappling with how to retrofit or make do with the facilities that we have," -- Nick Deml, commissioner of...

Recent 2023-2024 California Opinion Articles

Note that several of these articles may be behind News Organizations' firewalls and available only to subscribers. California Supreme Court upholds life-without-parole sentences for adults 25 and under San Francisco Chronicle By Bob Egelko March 4, 2024 In a 5-2...

Special Circumstances Conviction Project Report

Special Circumstances Conviction Project Report

Life Without Parole and Felony Murder Sentencing in California Download this 2023 report of the Special Circumstances Conviction Project In collaboration with the Felony Murder Elimination Project And the UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center Over 5000...

Walking the Yard Event at Pleasant Valley State Prison 2023

Walking the Yard Event at Pleasant Valley State Prison 2023

Walking the Yard Event at Pleasant Valley State Prison on March 5, 2023. Chairman Delfino Muñiz is giving a speech to the mentees. Walking the Yard mentors and mentees in a group photo. Mr. Alberto singing a song to the group in his native language. During the event a...

Welcome Home Re-Entry Resource Fair: April 9 2020

Welcome Home Re-Entry Resource Fair: April 9 2020

Thursday, April 9, 2020 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm at Lincoln Memorial Congregational Church 4126 Arlington Ave LA 90008 WELCOME HOME Re-ENTRY RESOURCE FAIR Temporary & permanent housing Medical and dental care or referrals Transportation Assistance Referrals for job...

Fair Chance Project Lecture and WordsUncaged Closing Reception

Fair Chance Project Lecture and WordsUncaged Closing Reception

Fair Chance Project Lecture: How Prisons Intersect Our Lives Held at avenue50studio in Highland Park Los Angeles The Fair Chance Project will be hosting a closing reception talk/fundraiser April 28, 2017. Be sure to come by and listen in as they go over the impacts of...

New report by AFSC highlights

New report by AFSC highlights

Community Cages: Profitizing community corrections and alternatives to incarceration American Friends Service Committee, August 2016, written by Caroline Isaacs, MSW Read the whole report: CommunityCages EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As states pursue sentencing reform efforts to...

Food Distribution Project

We at Fair Chance Project are doing a *weekly distribution* of food - a mixture of fresh, often organic fruits and vegetables, as well as non-perishable items to communities of need. The program is run by liberated lifers. Address: 9103 So. Western Ave Los Angeles, CA...

Clean and Green Community Clean Up Day

Clean and Green Community Clean Up Day

The Fair Chance Project coordinated a Community Clean-Up along with Councilman Curren D. Price at Augustus Hawkins Middle School. We were in charge of assigning the young Football team with their duties and had to lead by example. September 2015 event

Walking The Yard Program Update

Walking The Yard Update – Fall 2014 First off let me say CONGRATULATIONS to the men and women participating in our “Walking the Yard” mentoring program. We’ve had a great 2014 as more and more lifers are finding out about our organization and what we have to offer....

Two state laws ruled unconstitutional

Two state laws ruled unconstitutional By Denny Walsh dwalsh@sacbee.com Published: Sunday, Mar. 2, 2014 - 12:00 am A federal court judge has found two California laws that resulted from ballot initiatives – including the so-called “Victims’ Bill of Rights” – to be...

California expands parole for elderly, medically frail

Originally published in the LA Times , June 16, 2014 By Paige St. John, Staff Writer  Expanded parole programs for the elderly, medically frail to begin California prison crowding leads to new parole for elderly, medically frail California parole officials Monday said...

Assembly committee seeks boost to post-prison services

A special Assembly committee seeks increased money, attention to post-prison jobs and treatment A special legislative committee created last fall in the wake of federal court orders to improve state prison conditions and reduce crowding is calling for increases in the...

One County’s Success Story with Realignment

February 3, 2014 - from SacBee Something is happening, quietly, in Contra Costa County that should get the attention of the entire state. If it did, we could be on the road to much better, more cost-effective policies for keeping our communities safe. Since October...

Federal Judge Refuses to Dismiss Supermax Abuse Lawsuits

Mentally ill prisoners at America's most famous prison win the day in court -- but still have a long way to go to get the relief they've requested. Andrew Cohen Apr 25 2013, in The Atlantic In a rebuke to the Obama Administration, a noted federal judge in Denver...

Our Gardens

Our Gardens

Our first garden was planted on Budlong in South LA.  The following vegetables were planted in March '13.    

Yogi Quotes

Yogi Quotes

Quotes from Hugo Yogi Pinell: January 29, 2013 “I have 31 years of clean time and can’t even get a transfer to a place near home.  Now they want to give me 15 years on the Prop. 9 thing.  I don’t know what can be done!  And I’m gonna keep on pushing and growing...

Comment on: Parole board can’t require admission of guilt

Parole board can't require admission of guilt This is part of an article published in SF Gate, 04/01/11: A murder convict who appears to be rehabilitated after decades behind bars can't be denied parole merely because he continues to declare his innocence, a state...