WHO IS ALL OF US OR NONE?
All of Us or None is a grassroots civil rights organization fighting for the rights of formerly- and currently- incarcerated people and our families. We are fighting against the discrimination that people face every day because of arrest or conviction history. The goal of All of Us or None is to strengthen the voices of people most affected by mass incarceration and the growth of the prison-industrial complex. Through our grassroots organizing, we will build a powerful political movement to win full restoration of our human and civil rights.
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LOCKED UP…LOCKED OUT
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
OUR ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
BAN THE BOX
Our Ban the Box campaign calls for eliminating questions about past convictions on employment applications, for background checks to occur after only after an otherwise qualified finalist has been selected, and for other changes in hiring policy. This campaign targets and challenges the structural discrimination occurring when people are required to disclose past convictions on applications for employment, housing, social services, insurance, college admission, and loans. Our campaign has focused on public employment policy is recognized nationwide as the core of a Ban the Box movement that is changing public hiring practices. As of January 2011, 26 cities or counties, and 6 states have eliminated questions about conviction history from their public employment applications. Several of the cities or counties have also required that their vendors adopt the same hiring practices as for public employment.
We also encourage social justice non-profit organizations and foundations to review their hiring processes as well as Board and volunteer criteria, to eliminate discrimination against people with arrest or conviction histories. You can see a model non-discrimination policy (shared with us by the Peace Development Fund) and an “inclusion statement” (shared by Grassroots Leadership) here.
Campaigns to Ban the Box have been started by a wide variety of people: formerly-incarcerated people, neighborhood legal services agencies, City Council members, and Mayors. Building broad coalitions that recognize the importance of ending discrimination against people who have past convictions is crucial to winning the changes we need. To start a campaign in your area, check out our Ban the Box Campaign Tools. Contact Linda Evans linda@prisonerswithchildren.org for a hard copy of our Ban the Box Organizers’ Packet and for more information.
VOTING RIGHTS FOR ALL
One of the priorities in our civil rights struggle is voter education and voter registration so people on probation and off parole know they have the right to vote in California. We are seeking community access to register people to vote throughout the county jail system. We are continually confronting challenges that threaten the right to vote, such as the national Republican effort to require government-issued photo identification for all voters. Our eventual goal is for everyone living in California to have the right to vote, including people in prison. LSPC/All of Us or None was part of a landmark civil rights victory in December of 2006, when the California Supreme Court ruled that people incarcerated in county jails have the right to vote unless sentenced to state prison. Since that ruling, All of Us or None statewide has informed hundreds of thousands of people with conviction histories about their right to vote. We have informed visitors outside prisons and county jails that their incarcerated loved ones have the right to vote, and worked to ensure that voting rights materials are available inside county jails statewide. You can read about our current efforts to restore voting rights that have been affected by new policies under “Realignment” here.
CLEAN SLATE
California law allows for the dismissal of certain criminal convictions and outlines a process for applying for a certificate of rehabilitation or pardon. The California Clean Slate campaign works with legal advocates, service providers, and community activists to expand access to these services. We are also campaigning to expand the number of offenses eligible for dismissal, and to centralize the dismissal process. We have held All of Us or None Clean Slate Summits in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Alameda County, Orange County, East Palo Alto/San Mateo County, and San Diego.
OPPOSE GANG INJUNCTIONS and GANG DATABASES
Police all over California and the nation are using “gang” injunctions as a rationale for racial profiling and criminalization of young people of color. All the people targeted by the “gang” injunctions in California are people of color – these injunctions are clearly another tool of racism. We oppose these injunctions, which create a police state for whole neighborhoods and violate the civil rights of individuals and communities. Inclusion as a named individual in a gang injunction is solely the result of police labeling someone as a gang member through the use of criteria like past convictions, tattoos, clothing, signs, photos with family members or friends who may also have past convictions. Once labeled as a gang member and targeted by the police and the injunctions, young men of color are subjected to a curfew, and to the loss of their freedom of association – without being convicted of any crime except violation of the injunction.
Young people involved in street organizations are also being included in CalGang and other gang databases, which have no exit route. Increased use of “gang databases” means that people are labeled and criminalized for their whole lives. In Sacramento, evidence in an injunction-related court proceeding revealed that the Sacramento Police Department was receiving money for every arrest or conviction they could label as “gang-related.”
In Oakland, politically-ambitious City Attorney John Russo has spent hundreds of thousands of City dollars in filing injunctions against 19 predominantly Black men in a 100-block North Oakland zone, and against 40 Latino men in a 400-block zone, virtually the entire Fruitvale. These injunctions violate the civil rights of the young men named, and the rights of our whole community to freedom of association and movement.
Use of these injunctions is a relatively new legal tactic that deprives the people named of their right to an attorney, even if they are indigent. Because these injunctions are filed in civil court, defendants do not have the right to a state-appointed attorney. Virtually none of them have the resources to hire private lawyers. Opposition to the Oakland injunctions by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, LSPC and a community coalition forced modifications that include a way for people to remove themselves from the injunction, and a prohibition against including “John Does,” or unnamed individuals. In other places in the state, the inclusion of unnamed individuals has meant intensified police harassment and attacks on whole neighborhoods, focusing on young people. For more information, see the coalition’s website.
SUPPORT LIFER FAMILIES
In California, one in 5 of our 186,000 prisoners is sentenced to life in prison; nationally, 10% of people in prison are serving life-term sentences. The passage of Proposition 9 in 2008 changed parole laws dramatically for California prisoners. All of Us or None has held informational Townhalls for Lifer families struggling for the release of their loved ones on parole. LSPC/All of Us or None is part of building a statewide coalition to win parole reform and the release of more of our loved ones from prison. To join this effort, contact Jerry Elster (jerry@prisonerswithchildren.org).
COMMUNITY GIVEBACK
This yearly event is supported 100% by donations and volunteers; in 2011 we celebrated our twelfth Community Giveback. Formerly-incarcerated people raise donations to give bikes and other toys to children whose parents are currently incarcerated. The event demonstrates one of the ways formerly-incarcerated people give back to our communities. Our Community Giveback is an annual event, and we need donations every year to cover expenses. Please contact Hamdiya Cooks (hamdiya@prisonerswithchildren.org) for more information.
CHAPTERS
All of Us or None is a network of chapters and associated organizations, based in California. We have chapters and organizers in 9 counties in California: Sacramento, Bay Area/National, East Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Long Beach/Compton, Orange County, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Victorville. All of Us or None organizers have also been developing chapters in Oklahoma, Texas, Detroit, and North Carolina. Any organization is welcome to join our network if they agree with our goals, action principles, and want to participate in our campaigns. Contact us!: All of Us or None c/o Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, 1540 Market Street #490, San Francisco, CA 94102. 415-255-7036 x337, info@allofusornone.org // www.prisonerswithchildren.org.
