Decades of research demonstrate that such policies are not only inhumane, but also counter-productive, as regular family contact while in prison leads to far greater success rates for youth and adults post-release. Earlier this month, Sen. Leland Yee and a representative of Assembly Speaker-Elect Karen Bass joined community groups to unveil legislation that would keep families together and help rehabilitate incarcerated youth and adults.

The Family Communication and Youth Rehabilitation Act, SB 1250, authored by Sen. Leland Yee, seeks to reduce the barriers to communication between imprisoned youth and their families by reducing the costs to call home, guaranteeing the right to communication in native languages and facilitating family visits. Also included are families' rights to be promptly informed if a child attempts suicide and to be notified of scheduled parole hearings.

"Removing bureaucratic barriers to family communication is an efficient and effective means of helping rehabilitate incarcerated youth and will greatly cut recidivism rates," said Yee, who is also a child psychologist. "The research is clear: The youth and the general public are better off when we allow for greater communication with families."

With the leadership of Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, and input from its network of 1,000-plus family members of incarcerated youth, Books Not Bars, a campaign of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, helped draft legislation that will require the Division of Juvenile Justice to better facilitate communication between imprisoned youth and their families. "Current policies are inconsistent and counter-productive to rehabilitating children and ultimately protecting the community," said Yee.

"SB 1250 will establish a consistent protocol for family communication and help keep families connected when their children need them most. This bill is a crucial element for successful rehabilitation and an investment worth making for healthier families and safer communities."

The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights launched the Books Not Bars campaign to close California's abusive and wasteful youth prisons in 2004 with a handful of imprisoned youths' family members, who formed Families for Books Not Bars. At that time, 5,000 kids languished in the violent warehouse prisons, enduring months of solitary confinement and receiving almost no education or rehabilitative programming.
Thanks to the tireless work of families, Books Not Bars and other advocates, the youth prison population has shrunk by more than half, to 2,300 youth. Boasting more than 1,000 members, Families for Books Not Bars has in turn become the nation's largest network of families advocating for their imprisoned children's well being.

Despite the population drop and a cost that has skyrocketed to $252,000 per youth per year, California's youth prison system is as bleak, abusive and wasteful now as it was four years ago. The stark numbers pushed the state to finally take bold action and announce that it will shut down two prisons by July 31 this year. Books Not Bars has launched a "just transition" campaign to ensure that prison officials address families' concerns with the closure and relocation process.

Families are also the focus of a second bill featured at the press conference on March 10. A representative from Assembly Speaker-Elect Karen Bass's office was on hand to unveil the Keeping Families Whole Act, AB 2070, which will amend laws that cut children off from their imprisoned parents.
"It's imperative that we address the issues that affect families with a parent who is incarcerated, hospitalized, in residential drug treatment or seriously injured," states Speaker-Elect Bass. "The ultimate goal is to try to keep families together by providing social workers the necessary discretion and realistic timetable to do what's best for the family. Maintaining the family unit should be the first option."

Assembly Speaker-Elect Bass worked on the legislation with a coalition of community groups grounded in the experiences of mothers in both juvenile and adult prisons, who find themselves permanently severed from their children for reasons entirely unrelated to parental fitness. The coalition includes AFFIRM (Adolescent Females for Intervention Reform Models), Books Not Bars, Center for Young Women's Development, Justice Now, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Time for Change Foundation, and Women & Criminal Justice.

Sumayyah Waheed, Esq., is policy director of Books Not Bars, a campaign of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. For more information, visit www.ellabakercenter.org. To read SF 1250, go to www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_1201-1250/sb_1250_bill_20080215_introduced.pdf. To read AB 2070, go to www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_2051-2100/ab_2070_bill_20080219_introduced.pdf.

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