In a powerful demonstration of opposition to the new visiting regulations recently adopted by the California Department of Corrections (CDC), over 150 people - mostly family members and loved ones of prisoners - came to Sacramento on March 8th to voice their outrage. These draconian changes will impose further hardships on visitors seeking to maintain contact with their incarcerated loved ones. Speakers at the early morning rally, which preceded the "public comment" hearing, talked about the humiliating procedures they must endure in order to visit their incarcerated loved ones and addressed the many ways the new rules would be a further obstacle to visiting. There was a strong sense that the CDC's new regulations criminalize families and friends of prisoners. "Our only crime is loving someone in prison" was a sentiment echoed repeatedly during the day.
Over 60 people spoke "truth to power" at the hearing, calling on the CDC to understand the ways these rules will damage the relationship between prisoners and the communities they come from, a damage which may never be undone. Family members spoke eloquently about the challenges of raising a family from inside a prison visiting room and urged the CDC to make visiting easier, not more difficult. Others emphasized the fact that these changes represent another step towards the total erosion of prisoners' rights. Speakers urged the CDC to remember other moments in history, such as the Attica uprising, when people rebeled against inhumane treatment. "This is not a threat, it's just a page from history," cautioned one family member.
