Fighting for Racial Justice from Legislation to Law: A Webinar on the Implementation and Future of the California Racial Justice Act

Watch our webinar from Thursday, April 24th, a dialogue on the Racial Justice Act (RJA), featuring a discussion with practitioners from different vantage points who are all fighting for the promise of the Racial Justice Act to be realized. The discussion gives insight as to what is happening in courtrooms for pre-trial and post-conviction relief efforts, what challenges have arisen, and what communities, attorneys, and those incarcerated are doing to overcome these obstacles.

We also be launched our https://www.rjaction.org/ -- a landing page by participatory defense organizers, impacted families, and the incarcerated, chronicling how the Racial Justice Act is being implemented, and strategies and stories from across the state on how to fight for racial justice in the courts.

In the new presidential regime Author J.M. Valle calls out the lies that crime is rampant and urges the county of Santa Clara to investigate what is working to decrease the jail population we have been seeing - all the more reason to continue to resist a new jail!

"Part of the presidential campaign was the spread of algorithmic misinformation during the election race. It appeared as if the entire country became rampant with crime like something out of Gotham City. Ultimately, the message we were getting was that California has gone soft on crime. Prop 36 passed, California voted to retain slavery in prisons and San José Mayor Matt Mahan is now declaring war on the houseless."

The Mass Incarceration Mayor and his War Against the Poor read by author Raj Jayadev takes a look at San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and his policies that continue to criminalize poverty, targeting the most vulnerable, for political gain. 

"In his logic, it is not the forces and factors that cause homelessness that need to be confronted, it is those who are suffering from it... After a few of years in office, he has zeroed in on the key antagonist of his administration, the reason that fueled his revolutionary charge to begin with, and it comes in the form of any poor person who is alive and visible in San Jose."

Read the article here.

De-Bug youth, Santos and Jules, attended their first Youth Leadership Conference in Sacramento, CA alongside other youth from around the state. With the focus on leadership development, they participated in workshops and event at the conference.

In today's episode, they reflect on their experience attending the conference as impacted youth and what they took away from their time in Sacramento. They also talked about their experience at De-Bug and what brought them here. We also get to hear Santos' story of traveling with an ankle monitor, evenutally getting the monitor off and his hopes for other youth impacted by incarceration.

Return to Sender: Slavery and the War on Drugs 
A Forum on Why We Must Vote No on Prop 36 and Yes on Prop 6

More on Prop 36: Prop 36 expands on the misleading claim that California is experiencing an increase in crime and is funded by conservatives and corporations. It will lock up Black and Brown communities, criminalize unhoused loved ones, and divert millions of dollars from reentry, mental health, substance abuse, and victim reentry programs to build more prisons.

More on Prop 6: Prop 6 would ban forced prison labor, prohibit prisons from punishing incarcerated people who seek rehabilitation over forced labor, and amend the State Constitution to read "Slavery and Involuntary Servitude are Prohibited”. 

This forum was co-sponsored by: 

Silicon Valley De-Bug • Asian Law Alliance • Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet  • Coalition for Justice and Accountability • Concrete Rose Coalition • Council on American-Islamic (CAIR) California • NAACP: San Jose / Silicon Valley Branch • Pangea Legal Services • San Jose State University Human Rights Institute • Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network (SIREN) • Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) • Silicon Valley Rising Action • South Bay Community Land Trust • Ujima Adult and Family Services • Wage Theft Coalition Santa Clara County • Young Women’s Freedom Center

Today, we talk with De-Bug’s San Mateo Participatory Defense core who has been observing arraignment court for the past 3 years and just filed a Judicial Complaint based on people's rights not being protected under the Humphrey ruling. 

On March 25, 2021, the California Supreme Court upheld the Humphrey decision, ruling that people cannot be held pre-trial due to their inability to pay. It declared the money bail system as unconstitutional and violated people’s rights. Instead, judges must consider someone’s ability to pay money bail as well as other least restrictive means that can ensure that balances public safety and the person coming back to court. In San Mateo County, judges will rarely ask or consider ability to pay on a case. 

In today's discussion, San Mateo organizers talk about why they filed the Judicial Complaint, what they have witnessed while observing arraignment court and the impact the money bail system has on low-income people.

On this episode of the De-Bug the System Podcast, we discuss California's Mandela Act (AB 280) and the history of solitary confinement in California and how this new law, if passed, will end the inhumane practice. We will listen to excerpts from a recent rally in Sacramento, CA where people from around the state came together to demand that Governor Newsome sign AB 280 into law. Today's episode features Jose and Melissa from De-Bug who have been a part of this legislation push for AB 280. Our host is De-Bug organizer Xavier.

More about California's Mandela Act (AB 280):
Historically, solitary confinement in California has been used indefinitely on our loved ones in CDCR due to gang allegations, confidential information and social justice/political beliefs. This all changed in 2015 after 30,000 incarcerated people went on a historic hunger strike to end indefinite solitary confinement based solely on gang allegations, not conduct, sentencing or due process. The hunger strikes were followed by the Ashker V Governor Brown settlement. Although changes have been made, solitary confinement is still being used for long periods of time against our people. AB 280, the California Mandela Act has already made its rounds through legislation and is currently waiting on the governor to sign. Join us with folks statewide to raise the governor’s attention to sign the bill! If he does, AB 280 WILL:

• Ban solitary confinement for specific populations including
  • Individuals with mental, physical and developmental disabilities
  • Pregnant people
  • People under 26 or over 59 years old
• Limit the use of solitary confinement in jails, prisons and private immigration detention facilities.
• Sets limits for confinement to not more than 15 consecutive days, or 20 days total in any 60-day period
• Requires facilities to keep clear records on the use of solitary confinement in order to provide public transparency
• Defines segregated confinement in California law

AB 280 does not eliminate individual housing when appropriate or necessary including after the 15-day solitary confinement limit. Instead, the bill allows individuals to be held in alternative housing units including transition pods or residential rehabilitation units if and when appropriate to ensure their safety and the safety of others, with access to out of cell time and support services.

De-Bug youth, Jordyn, Jules and Citrali, sit down with Daniel and Xavier to talk about their perspective of Kendrick and Drake, how they understand what happened and what they think is significant. 

De-Bug youth, Josiah, talks about his first experience going to a Racial Justice Act hearing in Santa Clara County. The Racial Justice Act is a California law that allows folks to challenge their case if racism played a role either explicitly or systemically in charging or sentencing. Josiah reflects on how the police could be found liable for racially profiling someone and the cop in the courtrooms reaction.

Jordyn and Jules, granddaughters of Rudy Cardenas who was killed by an undercover state agent in San Jose, traveled to the California state capital to advocate for AB 3021, a bill to protect grieving families from coercive police interrogations.

They talk about traveling to Sacramento and the experience during the Senate Public Safety Committee Hearing for AB 3021. They also reflect on going door to door to do "drop offs" on California State Senators to talk more about why AB 3021 is important.

More about AB 3021:

Moments after loved ones are injured or killed by police, families are often “interviewed” by police who intentionally withhold the information that their relative was dead until the end of the “interview”. What was initially thought of as an isolated experience by families during some of the darkest moments of their lives turned out to be a police interrogation tactic espoused by a private company called Lexipol that trains police officers on how to squeeze information from families to protect police from lawsuits and criminal charges. 

This bill comes directly from the experiences of Silicon Valley De-Bug families who have lost loved ones to police.

AB 3021 (sponsored by Ash Kalra, D-San Jose) will require law enforcement to inform families of loved ones harmed or killed by police of their right to ask about the status of their loved one prior to answering questions, their right to remain silent, and that before speaking with law enforcement, they can consult with a trusted support person or attorney and can have that person with them while they speak to the interviewer.