Overview
We advocate for policies, budgets and administrative practices to reduce wasteful spending on incarceration and prioritize investments in communities that make us safer.
Since our founding, we co-authored and co-led the successful Yes on Proposition 47 ballot initiative campaign in 2014 (c4), Yes on Proposition 57 ballot initiative campaign in 2016 (c4) and over a dozen/s legislative and budget campaigns. These efforts have reduced incarceration and increased rehabilitation and investments into community prevention and treatment. We have also advocated for trauma recovery centers — growing them from just 1 to 12 across California.
We focus our statewide advocacy to advance smart safety priorities that reduce wasteful spending on prisons, expand rehabilitation, remove barriers to recovery for crime survivors, and build pathways to successful re-entry for people living with past convictions.
AB 2992 (Weber): Employment and Bereavement Protections for Survivors
This bill will extend unpaid employment leave protections to all survivors of violence, ensure survivors have up to 6-weeks following a violent crime to recover without risking job loss, and would ensure survivors and immediate family members who have to leave their jobs are eligible for unemployment. The bill will also include protections under California’s Family Rights Act for employees to bury and grieve the death of a loved one and would cover employees who need to care for a sick or injured child up to 25 years old suffering from a serious health condition. Learn More
SB 1190 (Durazo): Tenant Protections for Victims of Violence
This bill will enable all victims of violent crimes and their families to terminate a lease without penalty within 180 days of the crime having occurred. Learn More
AB 2978 (Ting): Retroactive Automatic Expungement for Certain Qualified Misdemeanors and Felonies
This bill will allow individuals with an eligible conviction dating back to 1973 to have their record automatically cleared when a person has fully completed the terms of their sentence. This proposal builds upon AB 1076, which Ting authored and was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019; automatic records clearance, however, applies only to new cases beginning next year and beyond. AB 2978 seeks retroactivity. Learn More
AB 2342 (McCarty): Adult Parole Reform
This bill will express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation establishing a program under which the length of a parolee’s period of parole could be reduced by earning credits related to the completion of specified reintegration activities. Learn More
AB 875 (Wicks): Reestablishing Healthy Start
This bill will re-establish the Healthy Start Initiative within the Department of Education, in partnership with the Health and Human Services Agency, to oversee a grant program to fund local collaboratives between schools, communities, parents, county health and human service agencies, and nonprofit service providers. These collaboratives will support children and their families in accessing health and mental health care, screenings, basic need supports, and other opportunities that allow children to succeed in life. Additionally, the grant funds will build local capacity and program sustainability, strengthen partnerships between child and family-facing services providers, and support best practices through state, regional, and local technical assistance. Healthy Start 2.0 will target school districts serving a large proportion of students who have been marginalized due to poverty, isolation, immigration status, or other social determinants that impact their health. This bill will help streamline and integrate programs that serve these students and provide them with more effective prevention and early intervention. Learn More