AFSC - Oakland
Criminal Justice
AFSC promotes alternatives to incarceration, educates the public about new justice paradigms, and humanizes prisoners while calling attention to the inhumane treatment they receive through story-telling, artwork, and public demonstrations. AFSC's Criminal Justice Program conducts research and evaluation of existing criminal justice policies, develops public education materials, and sponsors art exhibits, publications, and speaking opportunities to help get the word out about prison issues.
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Campaign Against Use of Long-Term Isolation in California's Youth and Adult Prisons
The AFSC has launched a national campaign against the use of long-term isolation in prisons everywhere. Beginning with a conference in Philadelphia in May, 2008, in which over 400 people came together, the campaign will document the numbers of people in security housing units, control units, Maxi-Maxis, administrative segregation and other forms of isolation. They will document human rights abuses in these facilities where violations of international conventions and treaties are occurring. They will work to reduce the numbers of people in long-term isolation and to close down units wherever possible.
AFSC's new report, Buried Alive: Long-Term Isolation in California’s Youth and Adult Prisons (PDF, 1.5MB), includes the latest research on statistics and conditions in the California prison system.
- Religious Organizing Against the Death Penalty Project
AFSC's Religious Organizing Against the Death Penalty Project mobilizes people of faith in a drive to abolish the death penalty in California and other US states that still execute. The program helps people learn about their own religion's teachings on the death penalty and provides ideas, resources and common strategies for the struggle against the death penalty by people of faith.
Beyond PrisonsBeyond Prisons is a strong indictment of the current prison system, undertaken by two respected experts on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee, that traces the history and features of our penal system, offers strong ethical and moral assessments of it, and lays out a whole new paradigm of criminal justice based on restorative justice and reconciliation. The book puts forward a 12-point plan for immediate changes. Beyond Prisons, by Laura Magnani of AFSC's Oakland Office and Harmon L. Wray, opens a long-needed national dialogue on our responsibilities as citizens and as a nation to provide remediation rather than mere retributive incarceration, so as to answer to the common good and the justice of God.
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- Justice Education and Action Project
The Justice Education and Action Project organizes youth, scrapper bikers, formerly incarcerated youth and others to become active through spoken word, hip hop, cultural expression. They facilitate workshops, organize events, and spread the word to bring people together, break down the issues, and promote peace. Get mobilized. Join the movement.
Youth Programs
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Asian Pacific Youth
The Asian and Pacific American Community Program works with Asian and Pacific American youth to increase their understanding of the economic, political, and cultural issues that work on their communities. The Asian Pacific Islander (API) Youth Institute brings together Asian and Pacific Islander youth from around the Bay Area to develop their leadership and community organizing skills through a year-round series of trainings that include role playing, involvement in school and community campaigns, rap sessions on identity, cultural exchange, and community theater and arts.
Indian communities consider youth involvement imperative to their social and spiritual health. AFSC helps Indian youth find a place in community-wide concerns. Staff share resources, techniques, and organizing skills that make community activities more accessible to youth. The program also helps bring Indian youth together with Indian elders and with youth of different communities, both Indian and non-Indian.
Campaign for Rights for the Homeless
| AFSC publication Street Spirit gives homeless people a voice through their poetry, art and cartoons, news and feature stories. |
More than 100 homeless vendors earn income by selling Street Spirit, Oakland's homeless newspaper. The paper also serves as an important tool in coordinating advocacy of issues concerning the homeless. For many activists, Street Spirit's 30,000 reader distribution provides them the most far-reaching public educational outreach available for homeless rights campaigns.