Organizing & Action Updates, CCWP in the News, and Updates on Prisons
Organizing & Action Updates
NEWSOM’S LAME DUCK BUDGET CONFIRMS PRISON POPULATION IS FALLING
Governor Gavin Newsom’s Proposed 2026–27 Budget underscores what advocates and fiscal experts have long noted: prison closures generate significant, ongoing General Fund savings as California’s prison population declines.
CA prison report
A new report on discipline in California prisons highlights slow handling of several sex assault cases filed against officers. In lawsuits, women have accused 83 officers of sexual misconduct.
From Death Row to Transgender Rights: The Prison Yard as a School for Courage
Editor’s Note: This is a two-part story — first the activist speaks, and then his student follows.
CCWP in the News
FCI Dublin: Nearly 300 more women expected to file sex assault claims vs. BOP
Nearly 300 women who were formerly incarcerated at the now-closed FCI Dublin prison have come forward with sex assault claims and lawsuits, or soon plan to, against the Bureau of Prisons, after 103 women won an unprecedented $116 million from the agency exactly one year ago.
Transcending trauma: Former lifers extol benefits of emotional awareness therapy
AFTER BEING WAREHOUSED in a California prison for decades before their release, formerly incarcerated men and women visited San Quentin Rehabilitation Center for a symposium on emotional awareness and healing.
They fight California’s fires, now let them rebuild their lives with AB 247
Every year, hundreds of incarcerated men and women in California prisons risk their lives, bodies and mental health to put out our state’s deadliest wildfires. For these sacrifices, they receive $5 to $10 per day, and their criminal record makes it difficult to gain the required certification as firefighters after their release.
Updates on Prisons
Deaths in Detention Warn of Horrors Behind ICE’s Prison Walls
At least 32 people died in ICE jails in 2025, and four more have already died in ICE custody this year.
Top Trends in Criminal Legal Reform, 2025
Reform, 2025 describes key changes formerly incarcerated activists, lawmakers, and advocates took to challenge mass incarceration in at least 10 states.
‘Human trafficking behind prison walls’: women jailed in Texas allege rampant sexual abuse
Eleven women incarcerated at a federal prison in Texas allege they have been subjected to rampant sexual abuse by staff members in the past seven years. The allegations are the latest accusations of abuse within a federal prison system rife with claims of inhumane conditions.
