Linked with Ellen Barry – USA.
The period immediately after release from prison is one of the most vulnerable for people with chronic illnesses. The Post-Release Wellness Project (PRWP) is an innovative model designed to promote the health and well being of newly released prisoners–Community Health Workers are at the heart of its success. The model has been developed through the partnership of three organizations: Transitions Clinic, the Health Education and Community Health Studies Department of City College of San Francisco, and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children … (full text Making the Transition).
Homepage;
Prisoners with children;
Publications;
LSPC Staff/ (About);
News and Events;
Issues in Dept;
Fact sheets;
Links;
Address: Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, 1540 Market Street, Suite 490, San Francisco, CA 94102;
Contact. (415) 255-7036, e-mail.
LSPC Celebrates 30 Years: This year, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) proudly celebrates 30 years of organizing against the prison industrial complex.
Over the past three decades, LSPC has seen the collapse and re-birth of the anti-prison movement while also witnessing the incredible growth and devastating effects of the prison system on people in prison, their loved ones and the broader community. Through it all, we have not only survived, but changed and grown to meet new challenges. We were born from the incredible vision of our beloved Founding Director, Ellen Barry, who started LSPC in 1978 with the help of two small grants from the Berkeley Law Foundation and the New York Public Interest Law Foundation. In the ensuing 30 years, we’ve expanded from a one-person legal services agency to a nationally-renowned organization of 15 people with a $1 million budget.
When reflecting on LSPC’s journey, we honor the following significant accomplishments:
- Prioritizing the voices of the people most affected by imprisonment and centralizing the leadership of formerly incarcerated people, people of color and poor people on our staff, on our board, and in the work we do;
- Nurturing the development of All of Us or None, a national organization comprised of former prisoners fighting the many forms of discrimination people face as a result of a conviction history;
- Bringing to the forefront the unique challenges faced by women prisoners, agroup of women often made invisble in a system overwhelmingly comprised of men;
- Surviving for 30 years and remaining flexible in the face of an ever-changing political landscape, including the crushing effects of COINTELPRO in the 70s, the massive prison-building boom of the 80s, and the passage of the Prison Litigation Reform Act during the 90s;
- Responding to 99% of all prisoner letters we receive – today, approximately 50 letters per week;
- Providing ongoing support to the development of other prison rights organizations including Critical Resistance, Justice Now, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Prison Activist Resource Center and Families with a Future;
- Supporting and mobilizing family members of prisoners to advocate on behalf of their loved ones;
- Participating in ground-breaking litigation around pregnancy care and parenting in prison, health care for women prisoners, voting rights in county jails and winning the freedom of incarcerated survivors of domestic violence;
- Contributing to key intellectual concepts and political perspectives such as the idea of the “prison industrial complex,” the struggles around prison abolition and prison reform, understanding prisons as a public health crisis, and the idea of prisons as state-sponsored violence;
- Receiving national recognition for our family law work, which provides practical advice, legal aid, and information about parenting from prison to thousands of people each year.
As we look toward the future, we see ourselves as part of a growing, strengthening movement to challenge the prison industrial complex, and to create a just world. LSPC believes that a different world truly is possible, and we believe that our work today can help make that world a reality tomorrow.