California currently houses over 170,000 people in its state prisons. Approximately 11,000 of them are women. The state is appealing a court order to reduce the number of prisoners because of seriously unhealthy overcrowding. The California legislature has attempted to curb prison spending with limited success.
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children is a 30-plus-year-old organization advocating for the rights of incarcerated parents, their families and communities affected by incarceration. Staff Attorney Carol Strickman and Co-Director Karen Shain will talk about the enormous growth of prisons as a means of dealing with serious social problems and the impact of this growth on all Californians. At a time when there have been devastating cuts in all social services, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s budget surpasses that of public higher education, and is fast catching up with the budget for public schools.