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Help families stay
in touch with their loved ones!




Click here to sign our Citizen Letter of Support

Dear Cliford,

Good news! Our Family Communication and Rehabilitation Act passed unanimously through the California Senate Public Safety Committee, taking its first step toward becoming law. We must keep the momentum going and demonstrate broad public support for the bill as it heads to the Appropriations Committee next. Click here to add your name to our Citizen Letter of Support.

Books Not Bars worked closely with Senator Leland Yee from San Francisco to draft the Family Communication and Rehabilitation Act (SB 1250). By lowering the barriers and costs to communication with loved ones, this important legislation helps families stay in touch with their children who are incarcerated in California's youth prisons -- and helps the youth do better when they get out. Specifically, it will require the Division of Juvenile Justice to:

  • Provide four free calls to the youth's family each month.
  • Allow youth to speak on the phone to family, clergy, or counsel in the native language of the youth.
  • Provide blank paper, envelopes, postage, and pencils or pens to youth to encourage correspondence with family and clergy.
  • Offer free shuttle transportation twice a month to and from the nearest bus and train stations.
  • Translate youths' rights documents into Spanish and other languages, and provide translated materials to parents or guardians during orientation.
  • Notify parents 60 days before a scheduled parole consideration hearing.
  • Alert parents within 24 hours of a youth's suicide attempt or medical emergency.

Click here to add your signature to our Citizen Letter of Support.

Before drafting the Family Communication and Rehabilitation Act, we turned to our network of more than 1000 family members of incarcerated youth to find out how they could best stay connected to their loved ones in prison. This bill comes from their demands. Here's a letter from Patricia, one of many we've received from Families for Books Not Bars members:

More than 6 months have passed since I last saw my son. The only thing I have been able to do is wait patiently for a letter from him, telling me that he has either been beaten up again or that he is alive and doing well.

It's been over four years since my son was first incarcerated unjustly. I have lost three appeals during those years and have not had a single moment of peace. My family has tried everything but it was all in vain. The amount of debt we are in from legal fees, visiting, and telephone calls has burdened our family and burdened our ability to continue to see and fight for my son. He is so far away. It takes us more than eight hours on the road to see him. For three years, we would visit every two weeks. The cost of gas, hotels, and food was more money than what we can send him to put on his books. These costs burdened the rest of our family of five. We still have a mortgage, utilities, and other debts that we have to pay. We never realized how expensive it could be to try to keep in touch with our son.

My son has tried to stay positive and do the right thing, but in the end, the system does not care. He has grown depressed and discouraged. There were times when he did not want to keep going. My family has also grown depressed and discouraged along with him, but we know that we need to continue to support him in everything so that he can go on. We are his lifeline and we will continue to do what we can so he knows that we are here for him.

Based on what my family has endured in the past 4 years, I support SB 1250, the Family Communication and Rehabilitation Act.

You can help mothers like Patricia. Please join her and the Books Not Bars community in supporting the Family Communication and Rehabilitation Act.

Save the Date
On May 7, we're co-hosting a series of statewide actions against the costly and ineffective Runner Initiative. The Books Not Bars event will be in Sacramento, with rallies also scheduled for Fresno and Los Angeles. We hope you can join us and raise your voice against this ballot initiative that will bankrupt California -- more info coming soon!

Thanks for helping create justice for families.

Zachary Norris
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Books Not Bars is a campaign of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Books Not Bars and Ella Baker Center can't survive without the support of people like you. Please take a moment to support us today: click here to donate.

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