On 11 October 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger signed the Family Connection Bill into law. This victory is BIG. THANK YOU for helping us every step of the way with your emails to the Assembly and Senate, your calls to the Governor, and your participation in our rallies.
Last year, we asked Families for Books Not Bars members what would make the biggest difference for them in dealing with California's youth prison system. They all agreed that it should be easier for them to stay in touch with their loved ones. They were struggling with the costs of $4-a-minute collect calls and hours-long drives across California to see their children.
Books Not Bars took our members’ concerns and wrote legislation known as the Family Connection Bill to address this need.
Authored by our ally and friend, Assemblymember Curren Price, the Family Connection & Young Offender Rehabilitation Act will:
- Make it part of the purpose of the Division of Juvenile Justice to educate the youth in its care and promote family ties;
- Will require that every youth in a state DJJ facility be allowed four phone calls to family each month;
- Set up a toll-free hotline for information and updates on visitation;
- Require that proximity to families be considered in placement of young people.
News Coverage
The mainstream media has taken note of this bill. We've got sample coverage here on our site.
The Legislation
If you're fluent in lawyerese, please read it over.
Background
SACRAMENTO—Joseph Maldonado’s family agrees with the state Inspector General: The staff at the notorious Chaderjian youth prison were derelict in their duty and may have contributed to the suicide death of the 18-year-old in 2005. But they also believe that the everyday policies of California’s youth prisons, which kept the family from visiting or calling Joseph, spurred his deadly depression. The family of Maldonado, with other families whose children died in the state’s youth prisons or are still locked inside, are working with newly elected State Assemblymember Curren Price to pass legislation that they believe will help kids survive the brutal isolation of the prisons, and help them succeed post-release.
"My brother was forced to spend 8 weeks in complete isolation," says Renee Nunez of Sacramento, "I truly believe that if CYA had let me see him that he would be alive today." The Division of Juvenile Justice was formerly known as California Youth Authority, or CYA.
Basing his legislation on a body of research that finds that prisoners who have regular family visits, phone calls and letters are far less likely to commit new crimes post-incarceration, Price introduced AB 1300 to make promotion of “family ties” part of the purpose of the Division of Juvenile Justice. One of several provisions of the bill requires the state to allow families to buy phone plans at affordable rates. Currently, the only way a ward can call home is collect, at rates much higher than normal collect calls.
"I was elected to solve problems that affect families in my community," said Price, "This is a smart and compassionate way to reduce crime in our neighborhoods by fostering ties between youth in trouble, their families and their faith."
Price's bill also provides that approved lists of visitors would be transferred with a youth, rather than requiring a family to begin the application process every time a ward is moved from facility to facility. When Maldonado, a 120-pound young man, was transferred to the Stockton prison, his family in Sacramento lost their right to visit. They were slogging through the bureaucratic reapplication process for months, but Joseph took own his life before the paperwork cleared.
"He was crying out for help for months and no one there would listen," said his sister Renee Nunez, "And our mother and I weren't allowed to visit because they’d moved him."
"Current policies thwart family connection in ways that families perceive as cruel, and criminologists perceive as stupid," said Jakada Imani of Books Not Bars, an organization that represents over 620 family members with youth in the state prisons, recently released, or—-like the Maldonados—-whose kids died there. Imani says that the research is clear and convincing, "It's your family and your faith that anchor you while you're in these hellholes; and it's your family and faith that helps you recover, grow and succeed when you get out," Imani continued, "Curren Price is a leader, and his bill is a life-saver."
