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Sacramento, CA – A coalition of criminal justice advocacy organizations announced the formation of an allied ballot committee — Californians United to Oppose Proposition 36, sponsored by the Ella Baker Center Action Fund — to oppose Proposition 36, which will be decided on by voters this fall.
They coalition said it will “concentrate its efforts on mobilizing communities which Proposition 36 would directly and negatively impact, especially Black, Indigenous, Latine, and people of color, low- and no-income people, formerly incarcerated people and their families.”
Californians United to Oppose Proposition 36:
There’s nothing brat, nothing demure, nothing cutesy about putting 1.5 million more of our friends and neighbors behind bars over the next ten years.
We all want to live in safe and stable neighborhoods. But the big corporations and the prison lobby behind Proposition 36 are putting their profits over the health of California’s communities. It’s California’s vibrant, multicultural, and historically marginalized communities that will be hurt most by Proposition 36. That’s why our committee has formed today — to link arms with our neighbors and collectively refuse to go backward, refuse to refill our prisons, and refuse to waste billions of taxpayer dollars.
Californians want and need solutions to the issues they’re seeing online and in their communities. But Prop 36 isn’t a solution — it’s a scam. If voters want to put California on the right track with real solutions, they’ll reject Prop 36 and urge their elected officials to invest in affordable housing, good jobs, and access to mental health and substance use treatment.
There is no doubt that Proposition 36 is a threat to communities of color and everyone who is struggling to make ends meet in our state. As organizations that represent these communities, we say, ‘nothing about us without us.’
We look forward to working alongside the Committee to Protect Public Safety and anyone else who is dedicated to defeating Prop 36 and keeping our communities safe and stable.
There is a lot on the ballot this year, so we’ll make one decision easy: vote NO on Proposition 36.
The coalition of organizations behind the committee, led by the Ella Baker Center Action Fund, is comprised of Initiate Justice Action, Sister Warriors Action Fund, Dream Beyond Bars, Safe Return Action, La Defensa, California Black Power Network, Initiate Justice, Urban Peace Movement, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and supported by the ACLU of Northern California and Vera Institute of Justice — California. The committee will coordinate their efforts alongside the Committee to Protect Public Safety, sponsored by Action for Safety and Justice.
Lenore Anderson, spokesperson for the Committee to Protect Public Safety:
We look forward to working alongside Californians United Against Proposition 36 and to defeating a wasteful ballot initiative this November. Our collective efforts will allow us to reach millions of Californians who demand change but want better than a one-size-fits-all approach to public safety. Voters deserve to know that Prop 36 will cost our state billions, cut critical safety programs, and turn back the clock on decades of progress. Together, we’ll put California back on the right track and defeat the prison spending scam
