ACJP

Gail Noble, a mother and community organizer, weighs in on State Attorney Marilyn Mosby's recent decision to charge six Baltimore officers with the murder of Freddie Gray.

At Sacred Heart Community Services on Jan. 9th about 45 people gathered to discuss Gov. Brown’s proposed 2014-15 State Budget to support statewide efforts by California Partnership, a coalition of community-based groups organizing and advocating for policies and programs that reduce and end poverty. DeBug's own, Charisse Domingo shared this speech about the impact of passing Prop 47.

While this new national inflection point regarding police accountability has led to calls for diversifying police forces, equipping officers with body cameras, and reforming departments, it is also an opening to examine and transform the system in its totality.

Cherisse Bergeron, the mother of a 16 year old who was facing a 6 year commitment in juvenile prison for his first offense, she took to the community to help build a case to free her son. With proof of a community in his social biography packet, the judge in the case made him turn around and face his community in the courtroom.

We recently had the opportunity to travel to a historic touchstone of the civil rights movement — Montgomery, Alabama — to work with and train six public defender offices in producing social biography videos to reduce charges and sentences.

We were honored to give a training session at Wake Forest University Law School to the next generation public defenders from across the South on how they can make social biography videos. The attorneys were a cohort of Gideon’s Promise, the amazing training program for Southern public defenders that is also focus of the HBO film Gideon’s Army.

The first woman up for a potential re-sentencing in Santa Clara County due to Proposition 36 won her release. A 55-year-old grandmother, Lisa Carter had done 18 years of a life sentence due to the recently reformed 3 Strikes Law. Lisa’ third offense was $150 shoplifting charge. This video was also a part of New America Media's Children of Re-Entry Project.

As ACJP launches a new training series for organizations to impact their local court system, we are releasing this mini-documentary to give a glimpse into the stories, strategies, and triumphs we have witnessed. From a mother freeing her son, to a church creating an ACJP hub, this video shows the early stages of our growth (recorded a year and a half ago.)

Real immigration reform means keeping families together, and it starts with stopping deportations. Please help the Preza family stop the deportation of their oldest son Cesar. This family has been through hell and back in the last ten years. Every one of the family members now reside in the US after fleeing civil war in El Salvador, and deporting Cesar will bring him great harm. With the support of his family, El Buen Pastor Redwood City, Silicon Valley De-Bug’s ACJP, and (now YOU!), we can help bring Cesar home.

Cesar Flores has worked locally with families fighting for reforms in the Bay Area. Now, through connecting with legislative advocates in Sacramento, these families can influence the laws that govern their local criminal justice systems.