The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The news media was buzzing, and we were covered on 7 TV stations, 4 radio stations, and 6 newspapers, and met lots of new people and new allies.

Read on, for more words about Jerry Brown's response to this protest.

This protest was part of Critical Resistance's campaigns of: Shrinking the system - Through our campaign to change parole policy, reducing the chances that people will be sent back to prison on technical violations such as a 10pm curfew. California already sends 50% of parolees back to prison on small technical violations -at an enormous cost to both their families and to the larger community. (It costs $35,000-45,000 per year to lock somone up in prison - we don't believe that's a good use of our money and resources, and we don't believe locking people up keeps us safe.)

Organizing around police practices in Oakland -
A 10pm curfew means that Oakland police will be able to step up their established practice of racially profiling certain communities in Oakland after 10pm. The new curfew means that everyone who happens to live in certain neighborhoods can be stopped for suspicion of being a parolee or probationer. We've seen the devastating effects of these practices through our campaign around Operation Impact, which racially profiles communities in Oakland, stopping every car and pedestrian who passes through blockades set up in "high crime" neighborhoods, arresting scores of people, intimidating many more, impounding cars, and ticketing people for the smallest of infractions, like having broken taillights.

Building a movement to create safety without relying on prisons: We know what can keep Oakland safe -- and it's not a 10pm curfew. It's ensuring that our kids have decent schools that Oakland right now can't provide. It's about creating job opportunities, health services, and repairing the fragmentation of communities that mass imprisonment causes.

Research study after research study -- along with common sense -- shows that real safety is created when communities don't rely on incarceration and policing, and when tax money is spent on preventative programs that address the root causes of crime: unemployment, homelessness, poor schools, and lack of services.

Jerry Brown's office has started spinning - we've put him on the defensive.

He's started saying that this program is only for the "worst of the worst", that it's only affected 50 people, and that there is evidence to show that curfews reduce violence.

In fact:
1) The curfew can be imposed on anyone who is convicted for a felony at night.
2) The curfew has just started. There will be hundreds of people affected by this.
3) Every study we have seen shows that curfews are completely ineffective on reducing violence or crime. (http://wcr.sonoma.edu/v1n2/males.html,

http://ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/587/1/136,

http://wcr.sonoma.edu/v1n2/appendix_a.html)
4) Numerous studies show that former prisoners need SUPPORT to reintegrate into a life outside of a cage - not harassment. A curfew only further stigmatizes a population who is faced with incredible odds: who are forbidden from public housing, food stamps, university loans, and social programs, among other things.
5) A curfew means that more people will be returned to prison, further destabilizing Oakland already-fragmented communities (Just one great analysis of this is in "The Problem with Addition by
Subratction: The Prison-Crime Relationship in Low-income Communities," by Todd Clear in Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment,
http://www.sentencingproject.org/pub_invisible.cfm

Join us in this movement. Please call 510-444-0484 if you have questions about why we oppose the curfew, about CR in general, or to come to our monthly general meeting to start working for true safety in Oakland.

In solidarity,

Critical Resistance Oakland _________________________________________________________________