CALIFORNIA: NO MORE JAILS! NO MORE PRISONS!

(Copies of signed petitions will be presented to the Governor, legislators, county officials and stakeholders in communities that are impacted by prison and jail expansion)

In 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state of California to reduce its prison population by 33,000 prisoners. Yet, the State of California and over 30 counties are moving forward with plans to spend tens of billions of dollars to build thousands of new prison and jail beds across the state instead of mandating alternatives to imprisonment, reducing prison and jail populations, and eradicating draconian sentencing laws. Further prison and jail expansion would be a human travesty and an expensive waste of resources. California does not need and cannot afford more prisons and jails.

We demand that decision makers across the State of California take the following steps:

• Immediately end any and all planning, construction, and/or expansion of prisons and jails across the state. Cancel all lease revenue bonds sales to investors who would profit from prison and jail construction. Stop creating tens of billions of dollars in debt for future generations.

• Invest in projects that improve the health and well-being of our communities and increase public safety. We need schools, job training centers, youth centers, rehabilitation facilities, housing, not more jails and prisons.

• Implement well-known strategies to reduce rates of imprisonment, and create innovative programs that support the real needs of people coming home from prison and jail. Current policies have resulted in the prison population growing from 20,000 in 1980 to over 170,000 in 2007. Repeal repressive sentencing laws and policing policies that have targeted and destabilized communities of color.

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