When: August 6, 2010 the event in Fresno will begin at 11 a.m. with fasting all day.
Where: Governor Schwarzenegger’s office at 2550 Mariposa Mall #3013 in downtown Fresno
Fast 4 Freedom – Families and Friends of the incarcerated, along with prisoners within prison walls and several Prison Reform/Abolition groups will fast for one day to shed light and spread awareness of the pervasive injustices within the State of California.
Thousands will fast on August 6th within prisons and in cities and towns across the state. We fast to honor those most affected by the devastating impacts of mass incarceration on our state and local economies and communities. While our state is floundering in budget crisis, millions of dollars are thrown away each year incarcerating Californians for increasingly lengthy sentences, most often fornon-violent, non-serious offenses and even simple parole violations. This past year, the California Department of Corrections has already surpassed its $8.5 billion budget and has begun construction on a $7.7 billion prison expansion project authorized in 2007 under AB900.
There is an easy fix to the budget crisis: change our state's policy of mass incarceration for petty offenses or the non-offense of nonviolent drug use and stop building more prisons. Alternatives to incarceration are far more effective while saving the state money. Thousands of dollars per individual per year could be saved with a policy of prevention and intervention, i.e. funding public schools, mental health care, and drug treatment. Millions could be saved by releasing elderly and disabled inmates who have served their time and pose no threat to society. Reexamining the policy of life without parole, especially for youth who deserve rehabilitation and a second chance, would dramatically reduce overcrowding in a prison system already under federal receivership for overzealous sentencing policies. While our prisons overflow with drug offenders and parole violators, local jails such as the Fresno County Jail fill up with petty offenders who are held in custody sometimes months before they ever go to trial, according to a 2006 audit of the jail. As generation after generation is raised with our state's dismantled public school system and tax dollars redistributed from community services such as parks and libraries to police departments and cages we undermine our youth's rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, a fact addressed in the June 30, 2010 Fresno Bee article "Study sees health risks for black, Latino boys."
It is time to leave the failed 'tough on crime' mentality behind. It has failed to deter crime and in fact backfires as lengthy sentences without rehabilitation or re-entry services isolates and institutionalizes otherwise average people. 'Tough on crime' laws such as Three Strikes and mandatory minimums rips members of our communities away from their lives, families, and jobs. These are our neighbors and relatives who upon release find themselves barred from all public assistance and any possibility of a decent job. 'Tough on crime' sentencing CREATES repeat offenders and compounds the trauma that leads to drug use and/or crime. California is #1 in prison spending while closing schools and firing teachers; shelters, clinics, treatment programs, and public services such as libraries have lost funding; public workers are furloughed and their pay cut; and there appears to be no end in sight to either the financial crisis or California's prison expansion. Mass incarceration is financial famine, and Californians are starving for freedom!
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