Pastor Johnny Welcomes Parolees Home, and Connects Them with Needed Services

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Pastor Johnny LaPenias about to start a weekly meeting with parolees.

On a Tuesday morning, in a barren warehouse across the street from Superior Court, Pastor Johnny is leading a gathering of over 40 parolees in a meeting that is part resource fair, part spiritual revival.  The meeting, called Parole and Community Team, is mandated by parole, and is for every recently released parolee from the state prison system that is returning to Santa Clara County. Drawing little attention, it’s been happening for years with a new group of recently returned former inmates every week, both men and women, and may be the first time anyone has said two profoundly important words to them “welcome home.” Continue reading →

Make A Toast, But Don’t Drink The Juice — Responding to Obama’s Immigration Policy

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Florida Immigrant Coalition

The following piece is an editorial by our friend Subhash Kateel. Subhash is an organizer currently with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, host of the online radio show Let’s Talk About It, and is a co-founder of Families for Freedom. He wrote this piece in response to the news of the Obama’s Administration’s announcement regarding its review of deportation cases.

Thursday felt like time for a toast for America’s largest social movement, the folks fighting for immigrant rights. With the news that the Obama administration would review many of its pending 300,000 deportation cases and allow some of those with no “criminal” record to stay, you could literally hear the cries of joy jumping out of Facebook updates, twitter feeds, cafecito spots (I live in Miami), college campuses, and even a detention center or two. Continue reading →

ACJP Organizer Blanca Bosquez Explains Coerced Pleas on Gene Burn’s KGO Radio Show

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Blanca Bosquez

ACJP organizer Blanca Bosquez was on widely listened to 810 KGO’s Gene Burn’s Show on Friday August 19th regarding the criminal justice system. Click here and listen to Blanca respond to Burn’s statement that he would, “Never take a plea if he didn’t commit the crime.” Blanca changes Burn’s position after explaining the coercive nature of the justice system, that there are innocent people that take pleas because of the time that have been incarcerated, and the threat of excessively long sentences. She also speaks to the injustices she witnessed with her own son’s case, who was falsely charged with a crime and coerced during police interrogation as a juvenile. Listen to Blanca break it down from the 33 minute mark to the 38 minute mark. By the end of the conversation, Burn’s says such travesties in the law are “frightening”and that we all “need to be vigilant, since people are so mistreated.” Great job Blanca!

San Jose Mercury News: Law could lighten the sentences of California juvenile offenders serving life without parole

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Up on the line for the California legislature to consider is a bill that would open the possibility for juveniles under 17 serving a sentence of life without parole the opportunity to petition the court for a sentencing rehearing.  It is not a promise of release, like opponents of the bill are saying, but it is a chance.  And it is a step in the right direction.  Submission post by Charisse Domingo

Law could lighten the sentences of California juvenile offenders serving life without parole

by Karen de Sa
8/20/11
San Jose Mercury News

California’s practice of locking teenage offenders in prison for life without the possibility of parole would be upended under legislation just a few votes shy of reaching the governor’s desk — a change that would move the state closer to justice in conservative Texas and every other country in the world.

The bill by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would create a legal pathway but no certainty of release for juvenile offenders who currently have no option but to die behind bars.

Continue reading →

Thomson Reuters News Insight: Lower sentences cut costs without raising crime

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In the state of California, we are often told that prisons and incarceration are the most effective way to reduce crime. However, this recent report by the American Civil Liberties Union points to six “tough on crime” states including Texas, that have successfully reduced their prison population while simultaneously saving millions of tax dollars by reducing how much they spend on the prisons. They have accomplished this through a number of very reasonable reforms, such as quality rehabilitation programs for prisoners who are no longer a threat, ending mandatory minimum sentences, and reducing sentences for small amounts of marijuana possession, to name a few. — Post Submission by Ernest Chavez

NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Six states that reduced incarceration rates by focusing on parole or probation instead of prison time have cut costs without increasing crime rates, according to a report released on Tuesday. Continue reading →

Associated Press: ACLU sues feds for shackling immigrant detainees

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When ACJP attends ICE immigration court dates, we often saw people handcuffed, and treated like criminals for civil proceedings.  ACLU is taking on their practice, by launching a lawsuit. According to the Associated Press article, the ACLU attorneys say, “say thousands of immigration detainees — even the elderly and people with physical or mental disabilities — are routinely forced to wear wrist shackles, belly chains and leg irons during the civil proceedings, even if they do not pose a flight risk or other possible danger.”

San Francisco Families Protest S-Comm Deportations

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On the frontlines protesting ICE’s arbitrary rules under S-COMM are immigrant families pushing against the program’s implementation of nationwide deportations.  Documentary photographer, journalist, and organizer David Bacon captures these images at a recent protest against ICE.

Photos by David Bacon (dbacon.igc.org)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – 12AUGUST11 – Immigrants, unions, churches and social service organizations march through downtown San Francisco to the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the Department of Homeland Security.  They protested an ICE decision  to implement the Secure Communities enforcement program, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deportations, even though some states have tried to withdraw from their implementation agreements with ICE. California legislators are poised to pass a bill calling on the state to do so also.  Many immigrants brought their children to show that the impact of increased enforcement is the separation of families when some members are deported.

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The Stanford Daily: Three Strikes Project fights life sentences for nonviolent recidivists

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At ACJP, we often see families coming in who have loved ones doing life sentences for non-serious offenses due to the Three Strikes law. Until the law is changed, there are few legal advocates who are taking on these cases. But the Three Strikes Project, run by students at Stanford Law School, was founded in 2006 and has since reduced 15 sentences for prisoners who have committed a nonviolent crime as their third offense. The Stanford Daily’s Marwa Farag wrote the following article delving into the work of this student-run group. – Post submission by Betsy Wolf-Graves

Susannah Karlsson and Mike Romano of Stanford's Three Strikes Project.

Students at Stanford Law School are fighting to change what is known as the Three Strikes Law in the California criminal justice system.

The Stanford Three Strikes Project, founded in 2006, takes on clients who are facing life sentences under the Three Strikes Law, which mandates a 25-year to life sentence for third-time offenders. The third offense need not be “serious” or “violent” for the law to be applied. Continue reading →

California Lawyer: Mr. Public Defender — Profile of Jeff Adachi

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Head of SF Public Defender's office has entered the city's mayoral race.

Given this weekend’s news that San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi has officially entered the San Francisco’s Mayor’s race, we thought we would run a profile of his work as California’s only elected Public Defender. In describing the role of the public defender’s office, Adachi says,” We are defending a principle that you can’t taste or see or even experience, but something that you notice when it’s taken away.”

CONTINUE READING…

CBS News: Feds crack down on police brutality nationwide

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In what appears to be an exception to the rule for this administration, Obama’s Department of Justice is apparently aggressively pursuing what by any reasonable standards appears to be an almost unchecked explosion of police brutality in this country.

Apparently sensing the American public’s growing anger and impatience with repeated and well documented cases of police murder and brutality going unprosecuted by local officials, Obama’s Justice Department has been instructed to intervene. The following video and article from CBS News, focuses on the case of James Chasse, who was killed by Portland Police in 2006, as a way to highlight the administration’s new effort.

Now we can only hope that local and state District Attorneys/Attorney Generals– with continued public pressure– will follow the DOJ’s lead and begin to rebuild the public trust by aggressively prosecuting law violating police officers on the local level. — post submission by Aram James. Continue reading →