Dear Cliford,

Big news: the Family Communication and Youth Rehabilitation Act of 2008 is on its way to the California Senate Floor! Sponsored by Books Not Bills, the bill would make it cheaper and easier for family members to communicate with loved ones who are locked up in state youth prisons, regardless of economic or language barriers. Under the leadership of Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), we sailed through the Senate Appropriations Committee with a bipartisan 9-2 vote on May 12.  This Thursday, May 22, the full Senate will vote on the measure.  Can you urge your state senator to support this important bill by sending an email now?

Studies show that people with regular family contact while in prison are six times more likely to succeed after release¹.  To help our youth stay out after they return from prison, Book Not Bars and our network of families helped Senator Yee write the Family Communication Act (SB 1250) to give youth in Division of Juvenile Justice prisons the right to four free phone calls to family per month. It also:

• Requires that youths' rights documents be translated into Spanish and other languages, and that translated materials be provided to parents or guardians during orientation;
• Requires that parents be notified within 24 hours of a youth's suicide attempt or other medical emergency;
• Allows youth to speak on the phone to family, clergy, or counsel in the native language of the youth;
• Requires youth prisons to provide blank paper, envelopes, postage, and pencils to youth in order to encourage correspondence with family and clergy;
• Allows youth to write letters to family, clergy, or counsel in their native language;
• Requires parental notification 60 days before a scheduled parole consideration hearing.

With your your help, we're changing the way lawmakers in Sacramento think about juvenile justice. They're slowly but surely realizing that our youth have families and communities that love them and want them to be healed, not locked up and thrown away. Remind them again -- click here to email your state senator:
http://www.ellabakercenter.org/?p=bnb_sb1250_email_senator

For schools, not jails.

Zachary Norris
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

1. Holt and Miller, 1972. "Explorations in Inmate-Family Relationships."
http://www.fcnetwork.org/reading/holt-miller/holt-millersum.html