Defend California prisoners visitation rights

The Department of Corrections is proposing changes to the visiting rules in California. These changes will make it very difficult for people to visit their relatives and friends in prison, and restricting expression of comfort or emotion, and cutting off visitation entirely for inmates with more severe sentences. Among the changes being proposed:

These restrictions are counter to any notion of rehabilitation as studies have shown that regular visits reduce recidivism among prisoners. These rules will only help expand what is already a huge growth industry across the country: the criminal injustice system. In fact the changes to the regulation make clear the new position towards visitation. While the old regulation opens with the sentence: "The value of visiting as a means to establish and maintain meaningful family and community relationship is recognized and encouraged." The new regulation starts with: "Visiting is a privilege." This is a dangerous shift to a focus on using visitation rights for punishment.

The rules for prisoners in restrictive custody will specifically punish the politically active behind bars because they are the ones who get locked up in SHU and segregation as punishment for demanding their legal rights.

The public hearing will be open for public comments and all are encouraged to attend: March 8, 2002 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Department of Water Resources Auditorium
1416 Ninth Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

Join RAIL and MIM in a contingent to protest the changes in visitation rules in prior to the public hearing at 8:00 AM, March 8th

In addition to attending the protest and speaking out at the public hearing on March 8 you can also send written public comments protesting the changes to the regulations any time prior to March 8 and 5pm. These can be faxed, mailed or e-mailed to:

Department of Corrections, Regulation and Policy Management Branch P.O. Box 942883
Sacramento, CA 94283-0001;
by fax at (916)322-3842;
or by e-mail at pmchenry@executive.corr.ca.gov

For the complete text of the proposed regulation see:
http://www.cdc.state.ca.us/regulations/NCDR/2002/02-03/Text.pdf


 [About]  [Contact]  [Home]  [News]  [RAIL]  [Agitation Home]