Please help us pass Assembly Bill 1270, (Ammiano) to end the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR's) Media Ban. SHED SOME LIGHT ON CALIFORNIA'S PRISON SYSTEM.
Media access to our state prison system ensures the transparency needed to: 1. Enable state legislators to fulfill their moral, ethical, and professional obligation to monitor prison conditions; 2. Protect the right of taxpayers to monitor public institutions; 3. Decrease anxiety for families who worry daily that the violence, health epidemics or overcrowding inside prisons will exact permanent or lethal damage on their loved ones inside; 4. Increase safety for both Corrections staff and those incarcerated - (CCPOA supports the bill); and 5. Educate the entire community on Corrections issues. As many throughout history have reminded us, society is judged by how we treat those in prison. Transparency is essential to ensure democracy, let alone to ensure justice. Click here for a pdf copy of the fact sheet >
Letters of support need to be faxed to Assemblyman Ammiano's office by 4pm Wednesday, June 6th. Facts on the bill along with sample letters are included below. Please e-mail us with any questions. THANK YOU!!!
Assembly Bill 1270 seeks to restore the media’s ability to conduct pre-arranged, in-person interviews with specific incarcerated people under the discretion of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). It would: 1. Enable the media to report on our prison system with greater balance and accuracy; 2. Keep the public fully informed; 3. Better ensure that state institutions are both transparent and accountable; and 4. Increase safety for both incarcerated people and system staff through the monitoring role that media access provides.
The 2011-2012 state budget allocates $9.2 billion in taxpayer money to CDCR, yet public information regarding our prisons is limited by CDCR’s restrictive media regulations. Under current regulations, media representatives are only allowed to conduct random interviews with a pool of prisoners pre-selected by the CDCR. In-person, pre-arranged interviews with a specific person are only allowed if the media representative is an approved visitor, in which case they must complete a lengthy and bureaucratic application process, come only during prison visitation hours, and are prohibited from using any electronic recording devices or cameras. People in prison who give consent and have telephone privileges may engage in recorded interviews with a media representative but conversations are limited to 15 minutes.
Media access is even more restricted to the most controversial correctional facilities and units, such as the secure housing units (SHU). People incarcerated in the SHU are kept in total isolation without any visitation and telephone privileges. These units have been heavily critiqued for confining people to small concrete cells for 23 hours of the day without any human contact or programming for up to several months or even decades, conditions that have been shown to deteriorate mental health.
Although SHUs house only 5% of the prison population, the 2005 bi-partisan congressional Commission on Safety and Abuse in American Prisons reported that 70% of all the suicides within California’s prisons occurred within the SHUs.
Overcrowding, conditions of confinement, impacts on prisoner health, the voices and views of guards, prisoners and families – the public has the right to a clear, accurate and balanced view of the prison system. Without greater media access, it is impossible for either officials or the public to fully understand and address issues within our correctional facilities.
This bill enables media representatives to request specific in-person interviews with people in prison, and requires CDCR to respond to requests within a 48-hour period. The department would still retain discretion over all media requests, including the ability to deny requests that pose any safety risks to the institution, staff, or a member of the public. Any responses denying a request must be accompanied with a written explanation. Crime victims and their families would be notified of an approved interview at least two days prior to the interview date. In addition, prisoners would be protected from any acts of retaliation by CDCR for speaking with a media representative.
Media representatives were allowed to request interviews with specific people inside California prisons for over two decades prior to 1996, when the change was made through an emergency internal regulation. Since then, there has been no change in the regulation, nor internal Departmental review of the potential harm to people in prison or staff when such secrecy is [email protected]
LETTERS OF SUPPORT
Please fax your letter of support in by Tuesday, June 5th at 4pm to Assemblyman Ammiano, (916) 319-2113. If you are able, please e-mail or fax a copy of your letter to the Youth Justice Coalition, so we can make sure that it is registered with the Senate Public Safety Committee - by either responding to this e-mail or faxing us at (323) 846-9472.
SAMPLE LETTERS ARE INCLUDED BELOW.
For organizations, use letter #1.
For family members of incarcerated people, use letter #2.
For incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, use letter #3.
#1 - ORGANIZATIONS, UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENTS AND CHURCHES
The Honorable Tom Ammiano
Chair, Assembly Public Safety Committee
California State Assembly
Via facsimile: (916) 319-2113
RE: AB 1270 (Ammiano) to Lift the Prison Media Ban
Dear Assembly Member Ammiano,
____________________ (WRITE THE NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION is writing this letter to indicate our full support forsupport of AB 1270 in order to life the media ban in California's state prisons.
____________________ works to (describe the work of your organization here.) In order to ensure humane treatment and the best services possible for system-involved people, their families and the larger community, we seek to monitor and change conditions of confinement. Without institutional access for a strong, thorough and independent media, change is nearly impossible for us to create or maintain. We count on government institutions, policies and practices to be transparent and accountable, and urge the State Senate to pass AB 1270 in order to shed much needed light on the prison system.
Californians have a right to know what happens with their tax dollars behind prison walls.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Include your title and print on your organization's letterhead.
#2 - FAMILY MEMBERS OF PEOPLE CURRENTLY OR FORMERLY IN PRISON:
The Honorable Tom Ammiano
Chair, Assembly Public Safety Committee
California State Assembly
Via facsimile: (916) 319-2113
RE: AB 1270 (Ammiano) to Lift the Prison Media Ban
Dear Assembly Member Ammiano,
As the family member of a (son, daughter, sister, cousin – name your connection), I am honored to write this letter in support of AB 1270.
My family members has been locked up for ____ months/years, and is currently incarcerated at _________ State Prison. During the time of their incarceration, they have spoken to me about the conditions inside.
The most memorable stories include:
Write you story(ies) here in one – two paragraphs. Longer than that and they won’t read it.
As family members, we struggle to monitor and change conditions of confinement. Without institutional access for a strong, thorough and independent media, change is nearly impossible for us to create or maintain.
In short, AB 1270 is crucial to lifting up the voices, concerns and solutions of people inside lock-ups and their family members. Imagine if the world had never read Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, if the Attica Uprising ended without ever leading to a major transformation of prison conditions nationwide, if the torture and humiliation of detainees at Abu Gharib was never exposed and investigated.
Surely, if media access to prisons existed, the hunger strikers in California’s state prisons just last year, might not have been forced to take such desperate measures to shed light on the suffering endured within solitary confinement. In fact, it is media access to our institutions, and media exposure of their darkest secrets that is essential if California and the nation is ever to fulfill our promise for “liberty and justice for all.”
I look forward to working with you to move AB 1270 successfully through the legislative process.
Write your name and your address here.
#3 - FORMERLY OR CURRENTLY INCARCERATED PEOPLE
The Honorable Tom Ammiano
Chair, Assembly Public Safety Committee
California State Assembly
Via facsimile: (916) 319-2113
RE: AB 1270 (Ammiano) to Lift the Prison Media Ban
Dear Assembly Member Ammiano,
As a formerly/an incarcerated person, I am honored to write this letter in support of AB 1270.
I was/am locked up in list the institutions here for a total of ____ years, and have been home since _________ (if you have been released).
While inside, I have experienced and witnessed many issues of great concern to me and my fellow prisoners. The most memorable stories include:
Write you story(ies) here in one – two paragraphs. Longer than that and they won’t read it.
As people who are formerly incarcerated, we struggle to monitor and change conditions of confinement. We have made a commitment to the people we left behind that we will not forget them. Without institutional access for a strong, thorough and independent media, change is nearly impossible for us to create or maintain.
AB 1270 is crucial to lifting up the voices, concerns and solutions of people inside lock-ups, those of us who have returned home, and our family members.
If media access to prisons existed, the hunger strikers in California’s state prisons just last year, might not have been forced to take such desperate measures to shed light on the tary confinement. In fact, media access to our institutions, is essential to the building of a transparent and humane justice system. Californians have a right to know what happens with their tax dollars behind prison walls.
I look forward to working with you to move AB 1270 successfully through the legislative process.
Write your name and your address here.
vaporwave
kianamaiart
titsay
izzy806
kaledo-art
romaincrisis
areudirty
stormborns
