During the ‘07-’08 legislative session, LSPC staff worked on six bills—far more than we ever have before! We have been learning about and concentrating on working through legislation, as we believe LSPC has enough strength to make significant change this way. We’re also working hard on our grassroots organizing, as well as continuing to develop a legal strategy that will bring about real change. We will continue on all of these fronts in the coming year.

One of our bills, AB2306 (Karnette), was signed on July 18, 2008, and allows incarcerated survivors of domestic violence access to legal representation in hopes of winning new trials and eventual release by increasing the period of time that survivors can file for habeas relief until 2020.

“We are thrilled that survivors and their legal teams will have more time to put together their habeas petitions and a real opportunity to have their stories heard by the courts,” said Marisa Gonzalez, LSPC Staff Attorney and California Habeas Project Co-Coordinator.

Another bill we expect to be signed, AB2070 (Bass), will increase the time incarcerated parents may have before their parental rights are terminated, as well as require social workers to look at the impact of incarceration on a parent’s ability to reunify with their child. This bill was initiated by members of the Women’s Policy Institute of the Women’s Foundation of California. At press time, AB 2070 has passed through the Assembly and is awaiting approval of the Senate Appropriations Committee before being voted on by the Senate. Both AB2306 and AB2070 will make concrete changes in the lives of our clients and their families.

We also sponsored two bills--AB1965 (Swanson) and SB1555 (Kuehl)--which would have created a geriatric parole policy (AB1965) and begun the process of easing conditions of confinement for older prisoners (SB1555). Unfortunately, neither bill made it out of committee. We will, however, continue to fight for the rights of older prisoners during the next year.

All of Us or None has been working on two bills—AB 3063 (Swanson) and AB 2099 (Hancock). The first gives some people with felony convictions access to a clean slate process, while the second sets up a pilot program in three state prisons for people to receive state-issued ID cards before they leave prison. At press time, both bills were awaiting approval by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

In November, we face two very dangerous criminal justice ballot initiatives. Prop. 9 (Marsy’s Law) is a constitutional amendment with the potential to vastly increase the number of people in prison and lengthen time served. Prop. 6 (the Runner Initiative) targets so-called gang members and further increases state spending on incarceration rather than education and treatment. We’re asking our supporters to VOTE NO ON PROPS. 9 AND 6!!