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Policy and Advocacy 2023

 

LARRP and Root & Rebound are co-sponsoring AB 974 authored by Assemblymember McKinnor. AB 974 seeks to allow currently incarcerated individuals to qualify for a single-use fee waiver in order to get a copy of their birth certificate without needing to pay the current $29 fee. Receiving this document without the need to save up for it, and returning to the community with it already in hand will provide greater opportunities and preparedness for folks as they leave the carceral system.

By providing us with your logo and sign-on information, we will submit letters adorned with every supporting organization's information. We will provide the letters before they are submitted so you can make recommendations or opt out of any given letter. This more streamlined method allows us to create correspondence quickly without needing to ask for you to submit a new letter for every hearing and committee the bill will arrive at. The form can be found here.

If you have any questions, please reach out to
Gail Yen gyen@rootandrebound.org
or Charles Vignola charles@lareentry.org

AB 974 FACT SHEET
SIGN ON HERE

AB 974

Bills sponsored and/or supported by our Partners

Californians for Safety and Justice SB749

I am reaching out because our TimeDone Bill, SB 749 (Smallwood-Cuevas), was just referred to the Senate Public Safety Committee, and we could use your support. This bill will restore the streamlined process for allowing a person with a qualifying felony under prop 47 to petition the courts to have their felony reclassified as a misdemeanor (fact sheet attached).

 

We humbly ask your organization to submit a letter of support for the bill as soon as possible. Please edit the attached template support letters for your organization and upload them through the Advocacy Portal as quickly as possible. All Letters of Support should be uploaded through the Advocates Support Letter Portal link

Policy Updates

March 1, 2023
As we enter March, we are excited to bring some important bills in the reentry sector to your attention as we embark on this year’s policy journey! We have been working hard behind the scenes, meeting with stakeholders, CBO’s, justice-involved folks, and government representatives to understand the political landscape and bring attention to some of the most pertinent issues and concerns facing the reentry community.
We will start out with our local efforts. We have been in conversations for some time about a Fair chance Housing ordinance for LA County. A Fair Chance Employment Ordinance was on the BOS agenda yesterday, which can be found here, language which Alex Alexander and Amber Roth, co-chairs of the LARRP Employment Committee worked on, alongside other reentry employment experts, and we are happy to announce it passed with a unanimous vote.
We also saw a unanimous vote on Item 2 from the Board of Supervisors’ Agenda. This motion, put forward by Supervisors Hahn and Barger, outlines specific language to employ folks from disenfranchised backgrounds, including specifically formerly-incarcerated individuals. The countywide workforce agreement lays out specific steps and protections for construction projects to follow, providing better-paying and safer employment opportunities for construction workers throughout the county.
Meanwhile we are also working on securing progress toward a City of LA Ordinance seeking to also establish Fair Chance Housing protections for all residents within the city limits. Over the next few weeks, we will be coalition building around advocacy efforts directed at the LA City Council, so keep your eyes open on our social media channels and email accounts to see where you can plug in and make sure folks in LA have equitable access to housing applications regardless of their background.
Turning our attention to our statewide efforts, we are proud to announce a number of bills we are signed on to co-sponsor for the year.
AB 974 by Assemblymember McKinnor. This straightforward bill seeks to allow the currently and formerly incarcerated population access to a fee-waiver in order to secure a birth certificate without having to pay the $29 fee that is currently required. Many folks who are justice-involved need access to identifying documents, and the price can be a prohibitive barrier to accessing such documents. If you represent an organization who is interested in signing on to support this bill, you can use this link to sign on. We anticipate this bill to be heard in the Assembly Health Committee in the next few weeks, and will keep you updated on its progress!
Policy and Advocacy Page - for 2022
Policy and Advocacy Page - for 2021

Useful Information:

Here is each office’s Supervisor’s district, the appropriate staff, and their email:

 

2022 Legislation Report
State Legislative Summary 2021
State Legislative Priorities and In-Depth Bill Analysis 2021
State Legislative Summary 2020
State Legislative Priotities 2020
State Legislative Priotities 2019
State Legislative Priotities 2018
State legislation 2017
State legislation 2016
LARRP Proposition 47