Greetings to our Currently Incarcerated Community Members,
We are in election season and we are focusing our efforts on two extremely important propositions on the California ballot. We are strongly advocating for our community to vote Yes on Proposition 6 and No on Proposition 36.
Proposition 6 will ban involuntary servitude (modern day slavery) in California, including in prison, which will be taking a monumental step towards true rehabilitation overexploitation. Passing Prop 6 will restore dignity through self-determination in how you spend your time, allowing you more opportunities for rehabilitation.
Proposition 36, on the other hand, is a dangerous repeal of Prop 47 that threatens to return us to the era of mass incarceration, criminalizing poverty and drug use, and costing taxpayers millions of dollars. It would cut vital funding that prevents crime, supports victims, and aids people when they come home from prison. We are telling people to not buy into the fear and vote NO on Prop 36.
There are nearly 100,000 people incarcerated in California. Imagine if ALL of our friends, family and returning community members made their voices heard by voting this November? Think of the impact that we could have! So please share the flyer included in this newsletter and encourage your friends and family to vote Yes on Proposition 6 and No on Proposition 36 this November.
SAM LEWIS is the Executive Director of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC). A former life prisoner, Sam understands the various obstacles the prison and reentry populations face. In 2017, Sam created the Hope and Redemption Team (HART), a group of nine former California life prisoners who go back into California state prisons to provide hope, demonstrate that redemption is achievable, and to prepare participants for successful reentry into our communities.
In other policy news, ARC began working on felony expungement in California. We cosponsored Senate Bill 731, passed in 2022, giving millions of Californians the right to seal their felony records. On November 9, 2023, my record was expunged, clearing the way for me to move forward without the weight of a past felony conviction. Over the last year, ARC has been holding free expungement clinics throughout California, from Sacramento to San Diego, and will continue doing so, providing legal assistance and representation for the foreseeable future.
Let’s continue striving to be the best versions of ourselves to strengthen our movement and create an equitable, compassionate, and accountable system. Reflect on how you can be part of the solution—whether through enrolling in college programs, joining selfhelp groups, or participating in diversion programs. Remember, your time is your most valuable currency, so use it wisely to prepare for a future where we help our communities and families heal. Ask yourself, what kind of world do you want to live in? For me, it’s a world where prisons and jails are no longer needed, and everyone has the opportunity to
Sincerely,
Sam Lewis, Executive Director
2024 State Policy Priorities
We’re excited to announce our 2024 State Policy Priorities!
We just passed ACA 8—The End Slavery Act, which will create a new ballot measure, Prop 6, allowing California voters to help us end forced labor inside prisons. We’re thrilled about the opportunity to end forced labor and give incarcerated people the choice of how to spend their time best. But we need your help. See our questions in the newsletter, and please send us your responses.
However, many of our other priorities did not move forward because of cost concerns. Learn about our priorities below:
ACA 8 - (Wilson)The End Slavery in CA Act
ACA 8 will seek to amend the state constitution to prohibit slavery in any form.
Status: This passed the Senate and now is Prop 6 on the November ballot.
SB 94 - (Cortese) Judicial Review of Old Sentences
SB 94 will allow a person to petition for judicial review if their offense occurred before June 5, 1990, they have served at least 20 years, and were convicted of a special circumstance under Penal Code 190.2.
This bill ensures counties form juvenile justice coordinating councils to get JJCPA funding. Councils will be 50% community representatives, with two co-chairs (one being a community representative).
Status: This bill passed the Senate and is now in the Assembly.
AB 2740 (Waldron) - Prenatal and Postpartum Care For Incarcerated Persons
AB 2740 will strengthen and extend prenatal and postpartum care for mothers incarcerated in state facilities.
Status: This bill passed the Assembly and is now in the Senate.
Please continue to send in your policy questions and suggestions. You may send mail to the LA or Sacramento offices; just make sure to follow the C/O ARC Policy
Sincerely ARC Policy Team
Help us to End Slavery and Forced Labor
We are working on important legislation to amend the California Constitution to remove the exception to slavery and involuntary servitude. We have created a new ballot measure, Prop 6, that aims to end forced labor inside prisons. Voters in California will weigh in on this measure in November 2024. We understand this is a significant change and will affect many of you. Your input and feedback are critical during this stage.
• Why is removing slavery and involuntary servitude from California’s Constitution important to you?
• Does being forced to work take away time from being able to attend classes and continue your education?
• Have you ever been threatened or punished for refusing or being unable to work?
• How could rehabilitation improve without a forced work requirement?
• What would your day-to-day life be like without a forced labor requirement? How would you maximize your time inside?
• What would you tell voters about involuntary servitude and forced labor?
Please carefully read the questions and mail your responses to ATTN: Newsletter
ride home
The Anti-Recidivism Coalition’s Ride Home Program provides immediate and essential reentry support to individuals being released from carceral settings. The program offers transportation primarily to individuals that have limited or no support with their transition back into society. This includes the first meal and a shopping trip for items that will help individuals in their transition – along with a warm welcome from our drivers. It is this initial contact that sets the transition in motion in a positive way, hoping that these individuals access services available to them wherever they are living. All transportation services provided are at no cost to program participants.
To apply, please write ARC and request for an application. ADDRESS BELOW.
All applicants must meet all the following criteria:
1) MEN Must have spent 5+ years and/or have served a life term or are elderly.
WOMEN Must have spent 3+ years and/or have served a life term or are elderly.
2) Disciplinary free for 2+ years.
3) Limited or no support in the community.
4) Interview with program coordinator.
5) Reentry Plan.
6) Apply within 90 days of release.
7) Must fill out ARC’s Ride Home Program Application.
After submission of the application, you must contact ARC office / Ride Home Coordinator to verify if they have been selected for further consideration. Approved candidates will be interviewed by Ride Home Program coordinator via phone call.
If you think you qualify and feel you can benefit from the program, please fill out, and mail the completed application to:
The Anti-Recidivism Coalition
Attn: Ride Home Program Coordinator
1320 E. 7th St. Suite 260 Los Angeles, CA 90021
arc staff profiles
ARC would like to highlight our amazing staff so our audience knows who is working so hard behind the scenes to create safer, more whole communities!
Meet Tyson Nguyen
“For ARC, I guide and motivate at-risk youth to challenge and transform negative thinking, attitudes and actions while promoting restorative justice, family involvement, community engagement, and supporting a re-integration plan to help youth engage in transitioning back to their communities.
You can always turn around no matter how long you have traveled in the wrong direction. Just never give up and learn not to quit. Remember that life without struggle is a life without success. The person I am today does not reflect who I was prior to incarceration. I can honestly say that prison played a big role in all the changes I’ve made in my life. It open my eyes to see the wrong path I was taking in life and to see what life is truly about. Today I can say I am proud of the direction my life is going and with all my accomplishments.“
Meet Nicholas Tirado
Nicholas Tirado started at ARC as a front desk intern, joined the Communications team working in front of and behind the camera, and recently was promoted to a full-time role as ARC’s Storytelling and Content Associate! Nicholas isn’t just creating content; he’s sparking important conversations and challenging stereotypes head-on.
Nicholas has created viral videos about mass incarceration and what it’s like to return home after incarceration. His funny, wholesome, and educational videos have gained over 1 million views on ARC’s social platforms. But Nicholas was once an inside HART team participant and graduate and now has blossomed into a full-time staff member and storyteller.
sam’s Expungement announcement
ARC’s Executive Director Sam Lewis received his SB 731 Expungement!
SB 731 is a new law in California that allows people with past convictions to seal their records, including most people with prior felony convictions. Sam spoke about his personal experience and desire to empower incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people at his hearing.
Sam served a 24-year prison sentence, was on state parole when he was released from incarceration, and had a felony conviction that followed him everywhere he went. Being denied because of a past conviction is what ARC members face daily: checking a box for a felony conviction, hindering employment opportunities, housing access, education, and countless other rights and dignities. A felony not only obstructs the chance at life outside incarceration but also demoralizes a person’s hope for the future. Because of Sam’s expunged record, he is no longer required to check the box for “felony.”
As a teenager, Sam was on probation, and he eventually went to prison at age 19. Like Sam, many ARC members have been under systematic and institutional control since they were teenagers, and when they come home as adults, they have past convictions that follow them everywhere. An expungement isn’t just a fresh start but a release from the criminal justice system’s long-term hold on a person.
ARC has held expungement clinics across California in hopes that our members and people with past convictions can begin to clear their records. We thank Root and Rebound for helping Sam through the expungement process. We are grateful to our partners, Californians for Safety and Justice and Senator Maria Durazo, for helping to make SB 731 a reality in California.
hart team update
Our Hope and Redemption programming is inside 33 state prisons, including all the women’s facilities. Recently, we have expanded to SCC, High Desert, Wasco, and CMC. We hope to be in every state prison very soon! If you want to sign up for a HART program, please contact your CRM.
In the last year, we held over 90 graduations across 30-plus prisons, and we hope to see many of you graduate and come home!
our community in action
ARC members gather at the annual retreat.
Recently, we held a graduation for our first-ever San Bernardino Second Chance Apprenticeship Readiness Program!
formerly incarcerated people from the Inland Empire learned about a new law that would give people with past felony convictions a chance to expunge their records.
Congrats to our most recent HART graduates in Lancaster prison.
Tell Your Friends and Love Ones To Register to Vote
Due to the passage of Prop 17 in 2020, our members can now vote while on parole supervision when they come home. Recently, we held a voter registration drive in Los Angeles to encourage formerly incarcerated people to vote in the upcoming elections. Having a voice at the ballot box makes our members feel more connected when they return home.
2024 is an important election year, and those in elected positions significantly influence the criminal justice system. Legislators, District Attorneys, Judges, and Sheriffs are all elected positions with considerable decision-making power. Please remind your friends, family, and loved ones to register to vote and carefully consider who is on their ballots. You can register to vote at registertovote.ca.gov.
This year, we’ve put forward a critical measure that aims to end the practice of forced labor within prisons. It’s crucial to tell your family to vote YES on Prop 6, Ending Prison Labor.
Prop 47 has played a pivotal role in reducing mass incarceration in California and providing services during reentry. Tell your family not to succumb to fear: vote NO on Prop 36, the Prop 47 repeal.
credible messengers
Every Saturday since 2015, ARC members and staff have volunteered inside Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall, mentoring incarcerated youth. Many ARC members returned to the facility where they were once incarcerated to build relationships with young people who are going through what they experienced. For years, ARC members have built relationships with many young people needing guidance, support, and a relatable person to talk to, also known as a credible messenger.
Because of our members’ commitment and impact on incarcerated youth, this has blossomed into a fully funded program in Los Angeles County. ARC’s Credible Messenger Program comprises formerly incarcerated mentors who enter juvenile facilities in Los Angeles County daily. Our credible messengers work with boys and girls in Campus Kilpatrick, Los Padrinos, Camp Kirby, and Barry J. Nidorf.
inside voices
We are featuring writing, creativity, and inspiration from people who are currently incarcerated. We are proud to lift their words and thoughts. To submit, please see the guidelines on the back page.
The Golden Key
By Clayton R. Addelman #BE4470
The Golden Key To All of Life
Resides inside the mind
It Frees You From Your Wrecthed Thoughts
And helps the weary to unwind
It’s sweeter than the finest wine
With more rewards than whisky
A peace inside will replace cancer
Whether it be of the mind
Or whether it be sickness
The Golden Key, in time, will fix this
This I promise as a witness
More than just witness, I am a true believer
I have been saved from the slaughter
Of the mental meat cleaver
The Golden Key lives inside my mind
I’ll carry it on this prison term
And feel as free as the eagles do
The Golden Key will see me through
Until my freedoms rings as true
ARC Celebrates Sam’s 5th Year as CEO
Recently, we celebrated Sam Lewis’ fifth anniversary as the Chief Executive Officer of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition. Along with being an enormous achievement for any leader, this milestone is a testament to the need for proximate leadership.
In the last five years, Sam, who is formerly incarcerated himself, has used his unique perspective and connection to the work, in combination with his many other abilities, to:
• grow our inside-prison programming from 8 to 30 prisons
• expand our workforce programs from just LA County to counties all over the state
• create a Youth Development department
• pass over 20 bills
• TRIPLE the size of our organization to 160 employees and counting, over 80% of whom are systems impacted as well.
Congratulations, Sam, and thank you for your leadership.
Anti-Recidivism Coalition
1320 E. 7th Street
Suite 260
Los Angeles, CA 90021
Founded in 2013, the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) works to end mass incarceration in California. To ensure our communities are safe, healthy, and whole, ARC empowers formerly and currently incarcerated people to thrive by providing a support network, comprehensive reentry services, and opportunities to advocate for policy change. Through our grassroots policy advocacy, we are dedicated to transforming the criminal justice system so that it is more just and equitable for all people.
Our supportive services – which include case management, trauma-informed counseling, housing, education, employment training, and mentorship – ensure that those returning home are given the best chance to be healthy, whole members of their communities. Our programs, correspondence, and legislative work on behalf of currently incarcerated people create hope and a pathway to freedom for many who never thought freedom possible.
Write to the Anti-Recidivism Coalition
Inside
Editor-in-Chief:
Design
Operations: Derrick Miles
Los Angeles: Anti-Recidivism Coalition, 1320 E. 7th Street Suite 260, Los Angeles, CA 90021
Sacramento: Anti-Recidivism Coalition, 2830 G Street, Suite 210, Sacramento, CA 95816
If you write ARC a letter, please include some general information that will assist us in determining how to best serve you, and that will aid ARC with their advocacy efforts. Please answer the following questions:
• Are you serving a determinate sentence, serving a life sentence, or a life without the possibility of parole sentence?
• Are you returning home due to SB 394, SB 260, SB 261, AB 1308, SB 1391, SB 1437, AB 965 or Prop. 57?
• Have you had a suitability hearing? If so, how many have you had?
Also please keep ARC updated if you happen to transfer out of your current institution. This will ensure you continue to receive the ARC quarterly newsletter.
Submit to our Newsletter!
We want you to contribute to our next newsletter and submissions are now open! Tell us what inspires you, what your goals are, what gives you hope, or anything you would like to share with our community! Feel free to also write your commentary on public life or what’s happening in the world at large.
Please write to us at ATTN: Newsletter Submission, 1320 E. 7th Street, Suite 260, Los Angeles, CA 90021. Write the name you would like to be published under. Submissions may also be posted on the ARC website. Please note that your submission is not guaranteed publication. We look forward to reading your work!
Support Letters for Board
Please be aware that it takes at least a month for us to have a support letter ready for the board. Help us help you and write to us within 3 months of your board date. We want you home!!
Thank you,
ARC Staff
Learn How You and Your Family Can Get Involved
The bills that ARC and other community-based groups throughout California are supporting this year are significant in that they help provide many of you with chances to return to your families, remove barriers to your employment once you return home, and ensure that young people never enter the juvenile / criminal justice systems. California legislators need to know that these bills are extremely important to their constituents. One of the ways that you can help these bills become reality is to encourage your families to contact their representatives and voice their support. They can find out who their representatives are by using the following website: findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.
Once they find out who their representatives are, they simply have to contact them and voice their support. Your family members, loved ones and friends can contact their representatives through phone calls and social media, as well. Please encourage your friends and loved ones today!
