Category: Organizing Updates

Brenda Barrera has spent her incarceration doing what the justice system asks of people — and then some. Convicted of second-degree Watson murder following a DUI collision, Ms. Barrera came to prison carrying years of unaddressed trauma: childhood exposure to domestic violence, intimate partner abuse beginning at age 15, an absent support system, and a deepening reliance on substances to cope with depression and untreated mental health issues. The Board of Parole Hearings itself acknowledged that her pattern of self-medicating and reckless driving bore the hallmark features of youth and diminished culpability.

Rather than serve her time passively, Ms. Barrera transformed it. She completed an extraordinary range of rehabilitative programming — AA, NA, Bridges to Life, Unhealthy Relationships, Adult Children of Alcoholics, Anger Management, and more — and then turned around and began facilitating those same programs for others. She serves as a Peer Support Specialist at CCWF, guiding newcomers through healthcare and mental health resources. Her conduct earned her placement in the “Freedom Fighters” honor dorm, reserved for those with discipline-free records and exceptional programming commitment. Staff consistently describe her as a leader, a mentor, and a model for what rehabilitation can look like.

The Board of Parole granted Ms. Barrera release. She has done everything asked of her. Her continued incarceration — delayed by a civil lawsuit over time credits, not any question of her character or risk — serves no legitimate penological purpose. California law is clear: when circumstances have changed and incarceration no longer serves the interests of justice, courts have both the power and the obligation to act.

Brenda Barrera deserves that chance. Letters of Support can be sent to me via email or written and/or pub directly into this Folder, where you right click and create a new google word doc for your letter. An example letter is in the folder. 

Support Otilia Pineda’s Resentencing (TBD, Tulare County Superior Court)

Otilia Pineda has spent nearly twelve years incarcerated at Central California Women’s Facility for a DUI Watson murder she committed at age 22 — an offense directly rooted in a lifetime of trauma she never had the tools to address. A Board of Parole psychologist formally connected her history of childhood abuse, domestic violence, and grief to the alcohol use disorder that led to the tragic accident.

Since that day, Otilia has not wasted a single moment. She has maintained a perfect disciplinary record — zero violations in nearly twelve years. She co-founded the Felons Against Distracted and Drunk Driving program, created and facilitated DUI deterrence curriculum, completed the intensive GRIP facilitator program (which carries a recidivism rate of just 1.18%), became a state-certified Substance Use Disorder Counselor, chairs the Youth Diversion Program at CCWF, and mentors at-risk youth and newly arriving incarcerated women. At her parole hearing, the presiding commissioner told her: “You expressed sincere remorse for your actions. You took full responsibility. You did not minimize any of your behavior.”

In June 2026, CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber — who has issued only 262 such recommendations out of over 95,000 incarcerated people since 2018 — formally recommended Otilia’s sentence be recalled based on her exceptional conduct and sustained rehabilitation. She is among fewer than one-third of one percent of California’s prison population to receive this recognition.

Otilia is not the same person she was at 22. She is a healer, a mentor, and a leader. She deserves the chance to bring those gifts home.

Letters of Support can be sent to me via email or written and/or pub directly into this Folder, where you right click and create a new google word doc for your letter. An example letter is in the folder. 

Thank you in advance and I appreciate your support for these women!