Oakland Coalition Challenges Legalized Racial Profiling

Oakland City Attorney John Russo launched an initiative this year to institute “gang” injunctions in low income and gentrifying communities. “Gang” injunctions are civil court actions brought against an arbitrary group of young men of color, restricting their activities in … Continue reading

Day of Forgiveness in Oakland

The Alameda County Day of Forgiveness & New Beginnings is an annual collaboration of government officials, service provider agencies and other organizations to offer pre-screened clients an opportunity to have minor offenses dismissed or calendared for a future date.  This … Continue reading

Advocating for Release of Prisoners

On November 30, 2010, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the historic prisoner rights cases known as Plata/Coleman. These cases concern the inadequate medical and mental health care of California state prisoners, which has been found to … Continue reading

Older Prisoners Gain Recognition & Rights

“Gertrude” is barely recovered from her hip replacement surgery and fears she will be forced to drop to the ground for an alarm. She is one of more than 10,000 people growing old in California’s prisons who face unique challenges … Continue reading

A National Agenda for Formerly-Incarcerated People

Most civil rights are systematically denied to formerly-incarcerated or convicted people.All of Us or None was created by us, for us — to restore our rights. This summer, we brought our vision to the US Social Forum (USSF) in Detroit. … Continue reading

Training the Next Generation of Advocates

Interns Joseph Clark and Lauren Liu describe how their experiences at LSPC impacted them this summer: “My favorite LSPC experience was writing a research memo about restorative justice. Treating a crime not merely as grounds for punishment but also as … Continue reading

LSPC Issues Report on Shackling of Pregnant Prisoners

In 2005, California enacted a law prohibiting the shackling of pregnant prisoners in labor under most circumstances.  The counties were mandated to write policies to implement this new law.  In 2009, LSPC researched whether or not each county had written … Continue reading

LSPC Collaborating on Hard Knock Radio’s “Without Walls”

On the airwaves, the traiblazing Without Walls program is a monthly show on Hard Knock Radio that offers news, personal stories and cultural highlights about the Prison Industrial Complex that affect our state and nation. It reaches ears behind the … Continue reading

Fighting for the Right to Vote

Through the years, there’s been a lot of confusion around the issue of who can and cannot vote in the state of California. With that in mind, the All of Us or None Voting Rights campaign is focused specifically on … Continue reading

Summer Interns

This year’s summer intern program was a huge success. We had eight interns from schools all over the United States including Yale, Cornell and Penn State. LSPC also had the privilege of hosting interns from around the world. We had … Continue reading