Press Releases

Film highlights the roots of of the American economic crisis, struggles of millions of middle class Americans, nationwide occupy movement.

Over 10,000 people joined a popular campaign on Change.org in partnership with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, demanding improved living conditions at a California youth prison.

...introduction of legislation in California that would make the maximum penalty for possession of drugs for personal use one year in county jail rather than the current three years.

TOILETS BROKEN, SEWAGE, CHEMICAL AGENTS ALL DOCUMENTED IN YOUTH-LED PETITION TO VENTURA YOUTH PRISON

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano’s bill (D-San Francisco) to restore media access to prisoners, AB 1270, passed the California Assembly today. The bill would remove restrictions on pre-arranged in-person interviews with specific prison inmates. Since these restrictions went into effect in 1996, eight versions of the bill have been vetoed by three different governors.  

Today, Governor Brown proposed to close the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) youth prisons. Brown’s 2012-2013 budget proposes that the DJJ stop taking youth beginning in 2013, eventually eliminating the state’s three remaining youth prisons.

Environmental groups, clean energy experts and local businesses gathered today to release a report that maps out how clean energy solutions can make a dramatic difference in the fight against a warming planet as well as the struggle to revive a cooling economy. The diverse group celebrated the fact that while emissions of global warming pollutants in 2009 were the lowest they have been since 1995, California solar companies employed 25,000 workers, more than anywhere in the country.

New solar panels are being installed in Oakland’s Chinatown financed by a groundbreaking stream of community funding. Launched as a pilot program, Oakland Solar Mosaic is a collaboration between solar finance company Solar Mosaic and Oakland’s Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.