Showing Up for Racial Justice-Santa Cruz County, CA

Info Session: Knock Doors in a Swing State with SURJ

4 Sessions between Friday, October 4 and Monday, October 7
Virtual

Come learn about how to get on the ground in key battleground states for the election this November. These info sessions will give you all the info you need about doorknocking with SURJ in six key swing states this fall (NC, WI, AZ, NV, PA, MI), with our partners at Seed the Vote.

Because of the way our electoral college is set up, white voters in these states have an outsized influence on the election, and it’s our role to have real, face-to-face conversations about the issues that matter to them.

Sign up for one of the sessions to find out more! (Or, wanna skip the info session? You can sign up for canvasses directly here.)

RSVP for the Info Session here

YES on Prop 6 – Limit Forced Labor in State Prisons

Proposition 6 would amend the California Constitution to prohibit the state from punishing inmates with involuntary work assignments and from disciplining those who refuse to work. Instead, state prisons could set up a volunteer work assignment program to take time off sentences in the form of credits. It would let county or city ordinances set up a pay scale for inmates in local jails.

The measure’s potential costs remain unknown and a point of contention. If approved, the state may have to pay the minimum wage to inmates with work assignments depending on how courts interpret the law and future voluntary work programs. Why is it on the ballot? California wasn’t a slave state, but it does have a history of forced labor. Lawmakers created a reparations task force and directed it to address historical inequities that harmed Black residents. The task force recommended changing the state constitution to prohibit any form of enslavement as one of 14 key priorities this session.

Legislators considered a similar measure in 2022, but support tanked after the California Department of Finance estimated that it would cost about $1.5 billion annually to pay minimum wage to prisoners. This year’s amendment has the voluntary work program as a way to get around that issue. Of about 90,000 inmates, the state’s prison system employs nearly 40,000 who complete a variety of tasks such as construction, yard work, cooking, cleaning. Most of them earn less than 74 cents an hour compared to the state’s minimum wage of $16.

NO on Prop 36, California’s Ballot Proposition to Recall Prop 47

In the early 2010s, California’s prison system was overfilled, dangerous, ineffective, and untenably expensive. The situation was so dire that the United States Supreme Court ordered California to take action. To comply with the U.S. Constitution, save money, and improve the prison system without compromising public safety, Californians passed Prop 47 with an overwhelming majority of the vote. Prop 47 reclassified six minor felony offenses to misdemeanors, including shoplifting and simple drug possession, and it funneled costs savings into safety measures like drug and mental health treatment, homelessness prevention, and victim services centers. These changes aligned with research concluding that addressing these offenses with jail or prison time is both expensive and ineffective. A previous effort to recall Prop 47 in 2020 received less than 40 percent of the vote.

The ballot measure is a reaction to the perception of soaring retail theft. This woe among retailers is driven by exaggerated claims, unreliable data, and highly publicized incidents. Organized retail theft exists, but it is not the pervasive problem that retail executives have claimed it to be. Shoplifting isn’t actually on the rise nationally, but you wouldn’t know it by the tough talk from retail giants and politicians who benefit from false narratives about a “national crisis.”

By rolling back Prop 47, this ballot initiative would return California to its worst days of ineffective and expensive mass incarceration and a time when we had fewer tools to keep our communities safe. Prop 36 would reverse the state’s gains in reducing the dangerous, racially unequal, and unconstitutionally crowded prison population (since 2014, California’s prison population has dropped 28 percent with reduced racial disparities). Second, it would dry up funding for much-needed services, including employment assistance for those coming out of jail, victims’ services, and housing. Finally, it risks making California less safe, as programs funded by Prop 47 have reduced recidivism without increasing violent crime.

YES on Measure V in Watsonville

This Measure would allow all residents of Watsonville, not just “citizens,” to sit on City Boards and Commissions. It encourages political engagement and gives voice to a wider range of residents affected by City policy.

Specifically, the Measure amends Charter Section 900 – Boards and Commissions. Section 900 of the Charter currently states that, in order to be eligible for appointment to a Board or Commission, “a person shall be a qualified registered elector of the City.” This means that only U.S. citizens may currently serve on the Library Board and all City Commissions.

This measure would change the citizenship requirement to a requirement that, to be considered for appointment to a Board or Commission, an individual be a resident of the City. VOTE! EARLY!

First Friday: Curator-led tour of Seeing through Stone with Dr. Rachel Nelson

Friday • September 6 • 5 – 7 PM • Exhibition tour at 5:30
100 Panetta Ave • Santa Cruz • Wheelchair accessible • FREE

This First Friday, visit UCSC Institute of Arts and Science for a special curator-led walk-through of Seeing through Stone with IAS Director and Chief Curator, Dr. Rachel Nelson. Dr. Nelson will reflect on this major Visualizing Abolition exhibition, which is the first of such scale to be displayed at a UCSC gallery.

Seeing through Stone highlights the works of artists, including those who are formerly and currently incarcerated, that offer a vision beyond carceral systems, drawing out the flourishing collective story and alternative imagining currently underway in creating a future free of prisons.

The multi-sited exhibition is not focused on prisons but rather is oriented towards artists who help provide a vision—and a model—of abolition in practice. It incudes sixteen newly commissioned projects, alongside other works of video, painting, sculpture, installation, sound, and performance, across three exhibition sites through January 5, 2025:

INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES
100 Panetta Avenue, Santa Cruz • Hours: 12- 5 PM Daily (Closed Mondays)

SAN JOSE MUSEUM OF ART
110 S. Market St., San Jose • Hours: Thursday 4–9 PM, Friday 11 AM–9 PM, Saturday and Sunday 11 AM–6 PM (Closed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

SANTA CRUZ BARRIOS UNIDOS
1817 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz • Hours: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 12–5 PM (Closed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)

More info here