Ella Baker Center

✨ is ONE MONTH away! ✨

Since 2013, the Ella Baker Center has been advancing an alternative to National Night Out. Our Night Out for Safety and Liberation is a police-free event promoting a community-centered public safety narrative. We focus on building equity, power, and opportunity in our communities rather than promoting fear, crime, and punishment. This year, we continue to reimagine safety as a community with access to affordable healthcare, housing, food, education, safe and working infrastructure, and more.

Join us for a live DJ, food, games, community resources & more! Together, we can reimagine what outside of prisons & policing.

🕐 August 6th, 4:30-8
📍 Restore Oakland, 1419 34th Av

Questions? Contact [email protected].

ICYMI: is approaching!!!

The purpose of is to redefine and reimagine what for our communities – beyond crime, policing, and fear. Join us August 6th, 4:30-8 @ Restore Oakland for a live DJ, food, games, community resources & more!

Questions? Contact [email protected].

📣‼️ACTION ALERT‼️📣

Join the Care First Community Coalition TOMORROW, June 26 @ 9 AM to let Alameda County Board of Supervisors know that the time for Care First, Jails Last is NOW!!!

At the joint meeting of the Public Protections & Health Committee, the Board will finally hear a formal presentation of the Care First, Jails Last recommendations — and we’ve gotta pack the Board Chambers to show our support.

🌞 Roll out with us wearing YELLOW!
🌞 Prepare to give public comment* to show your support for community-based healing, housing, and diversion!
🌞 Join us after the presentation for a press conference & rally!

Make sure the Supes can see & hear, loud & clear: the people demand serious investments in the resources that truly keep us safe. CARE FIRST, JAILS LAST. ✊🏾⛓️‍💥❤️

⭐️ Can’t come in person? Zoom in, or email your Supervisor! Every comment counts!⁩

✨ SAVE THE DATE ✨

is upon us! Join us for a live DJ, food, games, community resources & more! Together, we can reimagine what outside of prisons & policing.

WHEN: August 6th, 4:30-8
WHERE: Restore Oakland, 1419 34th Ave, Oakland CA

Contact [email protected] with any questions.

The Board of Supervisors are voting today on whether or not to consolidate the recall election with general.

Special election will cost ~$20Million and the County is looking at AT LEAST a $68Million deficit!

A special election is costly, inefficient, and illogical.

Join to speak now AGAINST a special recall election.

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

EBC’s Virtual Prison Mail Night is this Thursday 5/9, 5:30-7:30pm PST

💌 RSVP by emailing: [email protected]
💌 Respond to letters from inside, support people with their self-advocacy & build community at our Virtual Prison Mail Nights

🗞Check out the new op-ed by Assemblymember Phil Ting and CURB Executive Director Amber-Rose Howard in The Los Angeles Times: “California’s budget deficit will force difficult cuts. This one should be the easiest”

📲 buff.ly/3WtkQMh

💥Read the op-ed to learn more about the importance of reducing excess prison capacity as a response to California’s HUGE budget deficit! .

💰🚩EVERY dollar of wasteful prison spending is a dollar NOT spent on the things we know keep people safe: housing, health care, jobs and community infrastructure.

“California is facing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit that will require lawmakers and the governor to make painful decisions. Nobody wants less funding for their child’s school, road maintenance, environmental progress or other essential services.

There is one area, however, where spending can and should be cut: prisons. Thousands of California prison beds are not in use. Simply consolidating and closing some facilities could ultimately save the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

The state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office recently estimated that the state could save $1 billion in operating expenses annually and up to an additional $2 billion in capital expenses by closing five prisons. Otherwise, the office expects one-fifth of the state’s prison capacity to go unused.”

- Assemblymember Ting and Amber-Rose Howard

You're invited to our membership launch!!

🕙 May 22nd from 5:30 to 7:30
📍Restore Oakland, 1419 34th

This is a way for anyone, anywhere to join the movement to create true safety for everyone.

Register today: https://buff.ly/3weCWqq

EBC is hiring! We seek staff who are looking to not only transform the world, but are themselves excited to be personally transformed by organizing for liberation while caring for ourselves or each other.

Apply to join our team today!

Managing Director: https://lnkd.in/eFK74kS5

Social Media Organizer: https://lnkd.in/es_unzVc

Dortell is in his 33rd year of an LWOP sentence our Inside Policy Fellows. He has a paralegal degree, 4 Associate of Arts Degree and graduated from Cal State in 2021. He is an award-winning essayist & amazing organizer.

Read his article: buff.ly/3QfaDPs

" is an intersectional campaign that combats criminalization and mass incarceration by pushing for the redirection of state resources to fund housing, health care, schools, services for victims, and programs that reduce recidivism and promote accountability, beyond incarceration."

Read more of this piece in Inland Valley News via California Black Media:

Sacramento Lawmakers Step Up Push for “Smart Solutions” on Crime, Public Safety - Inland Valley News Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌ ‌|‌ ‌California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌ Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood) and Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Ladera Heights), both members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), have joined other lawmakers and criminal justice reform adv...

Housing + services = what ends homelessness.

But SB 1011 would push California in the opposite direction, and make homelessness worse. That’s why over 100 organizations are urging

SB 1011 Opposition Letter from Coalition.pdf

This week a lawsuit was filed in the CA Supreme Court stating that CA’s violates the Equal Protection Clause of CA's Constitution because it's applied in racially biased manner.

Read more from Bob Egelko San Francisco Chronicle:

California’s death penalty is irreparably racist, lawsuit contends The numbers show, the lawsuit contends, that the state’s death penalty system is broken and can’t be fixed.

"CA's death penalty violates the state constitution’s equal protection guarantees because courts and prosecutors apply it in a racially-biased way"

The case is clear: CA’s is .

Read more from Lindsey Holden The Sacramento Bee: https://buff.ly/3JftyG4"

Is California’s death penalty ‘racially discriminatory?’ Why civil rights groups say so Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 placed a moratorium on executions while he is in office.

BREAKING: Today, we filed a lawsuit in the CA Supreme Court stating the violates the Equal Protection Clause of CA's Constitution because its application is racially biased.

Attorney General Rob Bonta Gavin Newsom

Full release: https://buff.ly/4aKAt5G

"The Hidden Hazards survey and report shows that prison officials have not prepared a course of action or even explored ways to reduce the harm that incarcerated people face as floods, extreme temperatures, and wildfires hit Californian prisons."

examines the intersections of climate change & the carceral system, detailing how the state can do more to protect people incarcerated from climate hazards.

Read more in The New Republic's article "Climate Change Is Turning Prisons Into Death Traps"

Climate Change Is Turning Prisons Into Death Traps Heat waves and floods are making Californian prisons increasingly unlivable. The state needs a better plan to address that.

Akonadi Foundation's 2024 Racial Justice Poster, “We dance to the beat of a thousand prayers,” depicts and celebrates the power of the collective cultural wealth that infuses Oakland to lift up and amplify possibilities for justice and healing.

“We dance to the beat of a thousand prayers” by Jose "Peps" Garcia honors the unique political, social, and cultural contributions of Oakland’s Black, Khmer, and Pomo communities and amplifies the importance of cross-racial solidarity. The intersecting struggles of these communities point to the need for us to invest in a shared vision for the next generation to achieve true liberation.

Find out more about this year’s Racial Justice Poster at buff.ly/4cp3Hsy.

ICYMI: We're hiring a Managing Director!

EBC is searching for applicants who exhibit an unwavering commitment to dismantling the prison industrial complex & fighting for racial justice.

Find out more and apply here: https://buff.ly/3VnH0yI

We hope to hear from you!

ICYMI: is a new, intersectional campaign to counter efforts to double down on criminalization and mass incarceration. Read the article, When it comes to retail theft, it’s everyday Californians who are getting swindled for more insight into why is so important:

https://buff.ly/42R9qmF

Meet our 2024 Inside/Outside Policy Fellows:
⭐ Barbara Chavez
⭐ Tony Tafoya
⭐ Kenthy Porter

The work of incarcerated organizers and system-impacted people is invaluable to the social justice movement. We need to partner with currently incarcerated people and pay them for their organizing work. Learn more and support: https://buff.ly/4a3jwDx

EBC’s Inside Outside Policy Fellowship fosters the leadership of currently incarcerated people alongside people who are system-impacted to organize on state policy that will bring systemic change to our criminal legal system. Currently incarcerated people in CA prisons are helping shape state policy and legislation to combat injustice. Their organizing highlights how the present carceral policies for convictions, sentencing, and parole are structurally flawed.

Our Fellows have been leaders in movement spaces like the California Alliance for Parole Reform, and have advised historic policies like the Racial Justice Act for All and the BASICs Act.

We're hiring a Managing Director!

✔️ We're searching for applicants who exhibit an unwavering commitment to dismantling the prison industrial complex & fighting for racial justice.

✔️ The ideal candidate will possess a combination of organizational strategic leadership skills & robust experience in operations management.

✔️ For more information about the position, compensation & benefits, and how to apply, please visit our website: https://buff.ly/3VnH0yI

We look forward to hearing from you!

"The Hidden Hazards survey and report shows that prison officials have not prepared a course of action or even explored ways to reduce the harm that incarcerated people face as floods, extreme temperatures, and wildfires hit Californian prisons."

examines the intersections of climate change & the carceral system, detailing how the state can do more to protect people incarcerated from climate hazards.
Read more in The New Republic's article "Climate Change Is Turning Prisons Into Death Traps"

Explore here:

Climate Change Is Turning Prisons Into Death Traps Heat waves and floods are making Californian prisons increasingly unlivable. The state needs a better plan to address that.

" made 2 major changes this year: First, it created a way for defense attorneys to raise racism in court. Second, it broadened what kind of evidence the court can consider to include indications of implicit bias."

Read more :

California's Groundbreaking Racial Justice Act Cuts Its Teeth in Contra Costa | KQED The Racial Justice Act was designed to radically reshape how our criminal justice system handles race. Contra Costa County has become a hot spot for cases testing the limits of the law.

We are thrilled to announce that we have received a two million dollar gift from Makenzie Scott’s Yield Giving Open Call! This award will transform our work allowing us the tools and resources necessary to effect short- and long-term change that our communities need!

We are collectively building a movement that is based on abundance, and we are excited to invest these resources back into what has sustained us for over twenty-seven year — the people. These resources are not ours alone, but they belong to, and will serve, our collective movement for liberation.

LeverforChange

Everyday we strive to uplift & honor Black history.

Ashley Chambers, our Senior Communications Associate was interviewed in 's article, The Civil Rights Movement Would Be Nothing Without Black Women

Read it here:

The Civil Rights Movement Would Be Nothing Without Black Women If Black men were the head, Black women were undoubtedly the neck of the Civil Rights Movement, and it's time to tell their stories.

Join California Coalition for Women Prisoners for their upcoming webinar: : Making California Women's Prisons Obsolete

WHEN: Thursday, March 28th, 5p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Register: buff.ly/3PlT6Vc

This conversation will feature activists Andrea James, Rachel Herzing, and Piper Kerman.

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: #ClosureIsPossible: Making California Women's Prisons Obsolete. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: : Making California Women's Prisons Obsolete. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) CALL TO ACTION! 🚨

Tell the Public Works Board & Gov. Newsom to HALT construction funding for the San Quentin rebrand.

➡️We need to keep the pressure on to ensure CA moves forward with prison closures NOT prison expansions!

Take action:

Halt the San Quentin Plan!

Join the book release of "Books Through Bars: Stories from the Prison Books Movement" tomorrow night, featuring our own James King. Tune in to the conversation on how organizers are pushing back against carceral censorship.

March 14 at 4 PM PT/7 PM ET

RSVP

Register Now – Books Through Bars: Stories from the Prison Books Movement – YouTube Books through Bars: Stories from the Prison Books Movement tells the little-known history of prison book programs. These local,...

“women bear the brunt of the costs—both financial and emotional—of their loved one’s incarceration.”

Read more in 's article, The Invisible Labor of Women Who Love Incarcerated People

Join us for a SPANISH Racial Justice Act Webinar TOMORROW:

🕒 Wednesday, March 13th @ 12-1p.m.
📍Register: buff.ly/3v7RyHy

Featuring our Program Coordinator Simelia Rogers and MSW Intern Juan Flores.
_____________

Únete a nosotros para un capacitación virtual sobre La Ley de Justicia.

Mañana: Miércoles, 13 de Marzo 12-1pm de la tarde
Registrar: buff.ly/3v7RyHy

Presentando nuestro Coordinadora de Programas Simelia Rogers y nuestro interno de maestría en trabajo social Juan Flores.

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Sesión de Capacitación sobre la Guía LJR . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. La Ley de Justicia Racial de California (LJR) prohíbe al estado buscar una condena o imponer una pena basada en la raza, etnia o origen nacional del acusado y presenta la oportunidad de impugnar conductas racistas en sus procedimientos legales. Usted y su comunidad pueden utilizar la Guía LJR para...