Implementing the End of Private Prisons and Detention Centers in California
On October 11, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 32 into law, banning the use of privately owned prisons and detention centers in the state. The decision was a victory for Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and its allies, who have been educating the public and advocating an end to for-profit prisons and detention facilities for years. The new law will have a dramatic impact on immigration detention in California, and is a precedent for other states.
As part of the AB 32 Coalition, we helped to legislate an end to private prisons and detention centers in the state of California that earn financial profit from the incarceration and detention of thousands of Californians. These companies in collusion with the Department of Homeland Security are already seeking ways to circumvent this new law.
After passage of AB 32 in October 2019, we are working on accountability, ensuring that this law be implemented in a way will bring release of detainees, and put the needs of immigrants and their families first.
In December 2019 we published an 8-page report, “Lessons from the ICE detention contract termination in Contra Costa County, CA,” gathering what we learned from the closure of the West County Detention Facility in Richmond, CA last year, and offering recommendations to inform efforts on a just implementation of AB 32 closures (and other closures around the country.)
On January 28, 2020, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity presented a webinar training focused on our Faith-Based Organizing model and the AB32 campaign to ban private prisons in California. View the webinar video here, or read the slides online here.
There will be an additional webinar on May 15.