Dear Senator ________:

Can you hear my shout: 

VOTE “NO” ON S.B. #206!!!! We spend $2.45 per day feeding each of our 160,000 prisoners. Scant quantity and scant quality. How does a grown man survive year in and year out on so little food? 
 

Many have families who go to the trouble and expense of sending them four packages a year with food and other necessities appearing on an approved list. These packages are not only aids to prisoners’ physical well being, but also boosts to their morale. The packages are very important.

Now, read carefully the wording of S.B. #206: “The department may maintain a canteen at any prison....”(underlining added.) There is no guarantee that canteen goods will be available in every prison always. If quarterly packages are discontinued, prisoners’ access to additional food and to other necessities will be at the discretion of wardens and families will have no way to help.

You must understand that complete loss of liberty is more punishment than you or I could conceive. Living day in and day out in a dangerous environment of gangs, drugs, violence, mental illness, and harsh guards is more punishment than you or I could conceive. Add to that hardly any medical care and low quantities of food. 

And now a Senator wants to take away quarterly packages? Please VOTE “NO” on S.B. #206.

Sincerely,
 
 

This bill will be heard March 16th by the Senate Public Safety Committee:

Bruce McPherson, State Capitol, Rm 4081, Sac CA 95814J

ohn Vasconcellos, State Capitol, Rm 5108, Sac CA 95814

John Burton, State Capitol, Rm 205, Sac CA  95814

Bob Margett, State Capitol, Rm 3082, Sac CA  95814

Byron Sher, State Capitol, Rm 2082, Sac CA 95814

Gloria Romero, State Capitol, Rm 4062, Sac CA 95814 

Re:  AB #280

Parole Hearings

Dear Assemblymember ___________:

Can you hear my shout:  VOTE "NO" ON AB #280!!!

Please do not be a party to further damaging our ailing parole system. Once a term-to-life prisoner has served his minimum term, he has the possibility of parole if found suitable and he has the right to try to prove that suitability once a year. 

For those who are serious about reformation and the hope of release, a year is a long time to wait for the next hearing.  Five years would be an eternity. The parole board commissioners are paid $90,000+ salaries to conduct hearings, and those salaries will be paid them no matter how many or how few hearings they conduct.  This bill will not cut any costs, if that is what its purpose is conceived to be. I assure you that there are today men and women in our state prisons who are deserving of parole.

Do not put more stumbling blocks in their way than are already piled to the sky.

Sincerely,

The Assembly Public Safety Committee will hear this bill on March 8th:

Mark Leno, State Capitol, Rm 3146, Sac CA 95814

Jay La Suer, State Capitol, Rm 2016, Sac CA  95814

Rudy Bermudez, State Capitol, Rm 5135, Sac CA  95814

Jackie Goldberg, State Capitol, Rm 5155, Sac CA 95814

Paul Koretz, State Capitol, Rm 2176, Sac CA 95814

Todd Spitzer, State Capitol, Rm 2111, Sac CA 95814

John Longville, State Capitol, PO Box 942849, Sac CA  94249