Based in Oakland, CA, the Ella Baker Center advances racial and economic justice to ensure dignity and opportunity for low income people and people of color. As we navigate the uncertainty and adversity of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ella Baker Center has been fighting for legislation to ensure the safety of our community. We are grateful for the incredible work put in by folks incarcerated who are impacted by these policies, loved ones, and our allies.

Back to Court: A Resentencing Guide to the Fair and Just Sentencing and Reform Act (SB 1393) and PC § 1170(d)(1)

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2024 Legislative Priorities

At EBC, we are driven by our vision for Truth and Reinvestment: acknowledging how “tough on crime” laws, segregation, disenfranchisement, and racial profiling have harmed Black and Brown communities, and advancing policies that reinvest in the resources our communities need to thrive. Our strength lies in our community and people power – people like you, who care and are willing to move our work forward. Our policy strategies are informed by directly impacted folks in order to make necessary and effective change. 

  • SB 94 (Cortese) Pre-1990 Judicial Review: This bill restores judicial discretion for individuals serving life without parole for offenses committed before June 5, 1990 (with some exceptions) and who have served at least 25 years of their sentence. This needs to pass the full Assembly by September.
  • AB 544 (Bryan) Voting Options for Incarcerated Californians Expanded – VOICE Act: This bill will create a pilot program through the Secretary of State’s office to provide grants to 3 counties to improve voter participation in their local jails. This bill is headed to the Senate with bipartisan support.
  • AB 2065 (Kalra) Racial Justice Act Data: This bill will require the Department of Justice to release county-level criminal legal data and increase access to police and probation reports to better support RJA claims. In addition to the bill, we are working through the budget to secure funding for additional public defense to support claims and the implementation of AB 2418 (Kalra) and the J-DATA program, which will improve prosecutorial accountability and increase transparency in sentencing and charging data.
  • Parole Reform (Hart) Language Access: This bill is still being drafted. It will create more training for interpreters and increase access to interpreters for the board process and translations of important parole board documents like Comprehensive Risk Assessments and Hearing Transcripts in up to 15 languages for people whose primary language is not English.

 

2023-2024 California Bill Proposals that EBC Supports

Below is a list of bills that have been introduced to the Legislature and are currently under review. They could mean really good things for release, resentencing, and improving conditions inside, and we wanted to keep you up to date! There are many more bills that we are tracking. 

Conditions of Confinement

  • AB 280 (Holden), or the Mandela Act (2023): This Act would require every jail, prison, and detention center to develop formal and public procedures for solitary confinement. These procedures would reduce the use of solitary confinement.
  • AB 1810 (Bryan) Incarcerated persons: menstrual products (2024): This bill would require a person who is incarcerated in California who menstruates or experiences uterine or vaginal bleeding to have ready access to these menstrual products without having to request them.
  • AB 1986 (Bryan) State Prison Banned Books (2024): this bill would require the Inspector General to post the list of materials that have been banned by the department on the office’s internet website. The bill would authorize the Inspector General to review materials to determine whether there is a legitimate penological interest for being on the banned materials list, and, if not, would authorize the Inspector General to require the department to remove that material from the department’s banned materials list.
  • AB 2709 (Bonta) Prison Visitation (2024): this bill is working to ensure that incarcerated people can receive visits unless they freely withhold consent. CDCR would have to inform both the visitor and the incarcerated person of the specific reason for any denial of a visit and provide at least 3 days of in-person visiting per week and a minimum of 7 visiting hours per day. In addition, the bill would prohibit the department from using strip searches, visual body cavity searches, and physical body searches of visitors.
  • ACA 8 (Wilson) End Slavery in CA Act (2023): Currently, the California Constitution prohibits slavery and prohibits involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime. This measure would instead prohibit slavery in any form, including forced labor compelled by the use or threat of physical or legal coercion.

Court Reform

  • AB 61 (Bryan) Arraignment (2023): Will guarantee that anyone who is arrested in California sees a judge within 48 hours of their arrest, without exception.

Criminal Fines & Fees

  • SB 530 (Bradford) Exoneration Compensation (2023): Will make changes to compensation for a person who has been exonerated. It also removes the requirement that the person be imprisoned to present a claim, removes the requirement that the person needs to prove injury, extends the deadline for filing a claim, and provides compensation for exonerees who had to register as a sex offender.

Policing

  • SB 50 (Bradford) Limiting Law Enforcement Vehicle Stops (2023): Would limit law enforcement’s ability to use minor, non-safety-related traffic infractions (such as a broken taillight, driving without valid registration, or incorrectly displaying a license plate to conduct stops).
  • AB 21 (Gipson) Training for Peace Officers (2023): Requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) to revise their training for field-training officers on interacting with persons with mental illness or intellectual disabilities to include instruction on persons with Alzheimer’s or dementia.
  • AB 742 (Jackson) Law Enforcement and Police Canines (2023): Would prohibit the brutal and unnecessary use of police canines for biting or crowd control and restrict their use for arrest and apprehension.

Police Violence Victims

  • SB 839 (Menjivar) Fair Access to Victim Assistance (2023): Removes barriers for victims of police violence and their loved ones to access Victim’s Compensation Funds by recognizing victims who are seriously injured or killed by police as victims, regardless of whether the officer is arrested or charged. This will allow survivors of police use of force to use documentation other than a police report and bar exclusions based on subjective assessments that the victim’s actions allegedly caused the injury. 

Democracy in Action 

  • AB 327 (Jones-Sawyer) Criminal Justice Crime Statistics (2023): Will require the Department of Justice and local law enforcement to report crime data to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System to ensure that policymakers have access to this critically important data.
  • SB 254 (Skinner) Media Access in Correctional Facilities (2023): Would require prisons and jails to permit representatives of the news media to tour a facility or interview incarcerated people in person. The bill would prohibit retaliation against an incarcerated person for communicating with the media.