A New Way of Life Co-Sponsored AB 2159 and SB 1085 Signed into Law by Governor Newsom

Los Angeles (September 30, 2022) – A New Way of Life is pleased to announce that AB 2159 (Reunification services) and SB 1085 (Juveniles: dependency: jurisdiction of the juvenile court) have been signed into law by California Governor Newsom. These two laws improve the ability for incarcerated parents and their children to remain together, and will help to prevent unnecessary and traumatic family separation.

AB 2159 prohibits dependency court from denying parents the opportunity to participate in family reunification services during pre-trial incarceration. Prior the passage of AB 2159, Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) section 361.5(e) enabled the courts to deny incarcerated parents the right to chance to reunify with their children, even if they had not been convicted of a crime, and disproportionately affected families of color and low-income Californians. “AB 2159 successfully amends Welfare and Institutions Code section 361.5(e) to clearly state that parents who are incarcerated pre-trial shall not be bypassed from receiving family reunification services solely for the reason of being incarcerated,” stated Brian Tan, A New Way of Life Staff Attorney. “A New Way of Life is proud to support this statewide change that will affect the rights and abilities of incarcerated parents to reunify with their children,” continued Tan.

SB 1085 amends WIC section 300 to prohibit a child from being separated from their family due solely to conditions of financial difficulty. Prior to the passage of SB 1085, a child could become a dependent of state if there was a substantial risk to the child’s physical wellbeing due to inadequate supervision, food, clothing, shelter, or medical treatment. SB 1085 recognizes that these harms are due to conditions of poverty and conditions of financial difficulty from being considered as a basis for family separation. “Conditions of poverty alone should not be the reason to permanently separate a parent from their child. SB 1085 will help vulnerable families who are at risk of being separated by allowing social workers to make more informed decisions on reporting neglect. It’s time for us to work together to create policies that focus more on supporting families, not separation,” said Stephanie Jeffcoat, All of Us or None Organizer at A New Way of Life.

A New Way of Life worked with California Assembly Member Isaac Bryan and 14 organizations on the passage of AB 2159 and California Senator Sydney Kamlager and 7 organizations on the passage of SB 1085. Stephanie Jeffcoat and Brian Tan were involved in the passage of these bills, and both stated these two laws are another step towards working “together to create policies that focus more on supporting families, not separation.”

About A New Way of Life

A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL) helps women, families, and communities break the cycle and heal from the formidable experiences of incarceration. ANWOL advances multi-dimensional solutions to the effects of incarceration, including: (1) providing housing and support to formerly incarcerated women for successful community reentry, family reunification, and individual healing; (2) working to restore the civil rights of formerly incarcerated people; and (3) empowering, organizing, and mobilizing formerly incarcerated people as advocates for social change and personal transformation.

A New Way of Life is confronting harmful stereotypes and demonstrating that alternatives to incarceration are possible. ANWOL is breaking the cycle of recidivism, repairing families, and developing leaders. The organization’s approach is built upon four key values that are necessary to promote community reentry after incarceration: (1) every person has inherent value and holds the power of possibility and transformation within them; (2) public resources are better invested in opportunities for transformation than on prisons and punishment; (3) formerly incarcerated people must be at the forefront in creating solutions to the incarceration crisis; and (4) incarceration of a family member affects the entire family and the healing process must involve the entire family. For more information about A New Way of Life Reentry Project, visit: www.anewwayoflife.org.

A New Way of Life Co-Sponsored AB 1720 Signed into Law by Governor Newsom

Los Angeles (September 28, 2022) – A New Way of Life is pleased to announce that AB 1720—Care facilities: criminal background checks—has been signed into law by California Governor Newsom. AB 1720 expands the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) authority to grant a simplified criminal record exemption to applicants seeking a license or position within community care facilities and removes the existing candor trap for applicants. AB 1720 will benefit the tens of thousands of community care applicants whose background checks are unnecessarily delayed and help reduce the statewide shortage of community care workers.

AB 1720 addresses an urgent need for the State of California to expand CDSS’s authority to grant a simplified criminal record exemption. Each year, tens of thousands of community care applications are unnecessarily held for review for an average of 149–170 days. AB 1720 will help clear this application bottleneck by enabling a wider range of applicants to be processed via a simplified criminal record exemption which take on average only 15–20 days to review. AB 1720 will also remove the existing candor trap for applicants by removing the requirement that an applicant sign a declaration under penalty of perjury regarding any prior criminal convictions. This unnecessary requirement punished applicants for honest mistakes in the application process.

The removal of the candor trap is especially important for formerly incarcerated communities. “It’s removal protects formerly incarcerated applicants from the presumption that they are not of good character and/or rehabilitated due to the inability to accurately recall details or mistakenly believing that certain details do not need to be disclosed,” stated Natalie Roberts, Senior Staff Attorney at A New Way of Life. “The requirement was always unnecessary as CDSS completes its own background check independent of the answers provided,” continued Roberts.

A New Way of Life worked with California Assembly Member Chris Holden and 23 organizations, including the East Bay  Community Law Center, Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, and National Association of Social Workers (California Chapter), to support the passage of AB 1720. That it received support from such a broad coalition—with no opposition—is a testament of the need and strength of this bill.

About A New Way of Life

A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL) helps women, families, and communities break the cycle and heal from the formidable experiences of incarceration. ANWOL advances multi-dimensional solutions to the effects of incarceration, including: (1) providing housing and support to formerly incarcerated women for successful community reentry, family reunification, and individual healing; (2) working to restore the civil rights of formerly incarcerated people; and (3) empowering, organizing, and mobilizing formerly incarcerated people as advocates for social change and personal transformation.

A New Way of Life is confronting harmful stereotypes and demonstrating that alternatives to incarceration are possible. ANWOL is breaking the cycle of recidivism, repairing families, and developing leaders. The organization’s approach is built upon four key values that are necessary to promote community reentry after incarceration: (1) every person has inherent value and holds the power of possibility and transformation within them; (2) public resources are better invested in opportunities for transformation than on prisons and punishment; (3) formerly incarcerated people must be at the forefront in creating solutions to the incarceration crisis; and (4) incarceration of a family member affects the entire family and the healing process must involve the entire family. For more information about A New Way of Life Reentry Project, visit: www.anewwayoflife.org.

What, to the Incarcerated, is the Fourth of July?

One hundred and seventy years ago, Frederick Douglass asked, “what, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?” His answer:

“a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”

Like Douglass, we would answer our question—what, to the incarcerated, is the Fourth of July—much the same. As the nation sings of being the land of the free, the constitution continues to enshrine slavery as a legitimate punishment for incarcerated people. As the nation celebrates life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, 1.9 million people are incarcerated nationwide—over half of whom are Black and Latinx. As the nation boasts of equality, Blacks are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites and given harsher sentences for similar convictions. As the nation shouts of liberty, 110 million Americans with arrest records struggle to find employment, obtain housing, and satisfy other basic needs due to laws that allow—and often require—discrimination against formerly incarcerated people. As the nation denounces tyrants and imagines itself a beacon of global democracy, 1 out of 5 prisoners in the world is incarcerated in the United States. As the nation basks in sermons, prayers, and hymns regarding the sanctity of life, over half of all women in U.S. prisons and 80% of women in jails are mothers—with an estimated 58,000 pregnant when they are incarcerated.

The recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade is the latest example of the bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy of the United States. Coming just days after Juneteenth, Dobbs v. Jackson is a stark reminder of just how easily our hard fought liberties can be stripped away. This loss in reproductive rights will have a devastating impact on millions of people, especially Black, Brown, low-income, and formerly incarcerated communities. Numerous states have already enacted anti-abortion laws that make it illegal to obtain, perform, or help someone get an abortion. Though more affluent communities may be able to travel to obtain an abortion, there are numerous restrictions that prohibit people on probation and parole from traveling across state lines. This will make access to safe family planning and abortion facilities difficult, if not impossible for systems impacted communities.

Today, on July 4th, as we celebrate our hard-earned freedom, let us recommit ourselves to the freedom work so necessary for obtaining and protecting those liberties—and let us remember: there is no freedom without bodily autonomy, for all of us.

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About A New Way of Life

 In 1998, Susan Burton founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL) to help women, families, and communities break the cycle and heal from the formidable experiences of incarceration. ANWOL promotes healing, power, and opportunity for formerly incarcerated people by taking a multifaceted approach to mitigating the effects of, and ultimately eliminating, mass incarceration, including: (1) providing housing and support to formerly incarcerated women for successful community reentry, family reunification, and individual healing; (2) working to restore the civil rights of formerly incarcerated people; and (3) empowering, organizing, and mobilizing formerly incarcerated people as advocates for social change and personal transformation.

A New Way of Life is confronting harmful stereotypes and demonstrating that alternatives to incarceration are possible. ANWOL is breaking the cycle of recidivism, repairing families, and developing leaders. The organization’s approach is built upon four key values that are necessary to promote community reentry after incarceration. (1) Every person has inherent value and holds the power of possibility and transformation within them; (2) Public resources are better invested in opportunities for transformation than on prisons and punishment; (3) Formerly incarcerated people must be at the forefront in creating solutions to the incarceration crisis; and (4) Incarceration of a family member affects the entire family and the healing process must involve the entire family. For more information about A New Way of Life Reentry Project, visit www.anewwayoflife.org.

LOS ANGELES, CA (May 4, 2022) – California organizations focused on ending mass incarceration, reforming the criminal justice system, and easing reentry for formerly incarcerated people gathered on the west steps of the Edmund D. Edelman Children’s Courthouse on May 4, 2022 to demand a radical transformation of the child welfare system. The existing system has a history of removing children from low-income families—especially Black, Brown, Indigenous, and formerly incarcerated families. These policies destroy generations of families and cause trauma.

The purpose of the rally is “to demand that California and all its counties dismantle policies and practices that continue to harm our families and communities,” said Vonya Quarles, Founder and Executive Director of Starting Over, Inc. “Three of my children were adopted out, and it was challenging to get my grandchildren out of the CPS system some twenty years later. It’s generational—I was in foster care, my children were in foster care, and my grandchildren—the harm the system causes over generations proves it’s not working.”

Those leading the protest stated the Child Protective Services—which currently operates as a family regulatory system, with its current practice of criminalizing poverty and treating low-income families as neglectful—should work towards ensuring that all children have access to their families and that all families have free access to the resources needed for children and parents to thrive.

Existing system demands, such as counseling sessions, mandatory drug testing (even in cases with no substance abuse), housing demands, and class requirements cost time and money, a challenge for low-income families who often must work multiple jobs to provide for their families. “The CPS system places demands on parents that are often impossible to meet,” said Diane Figueroa, an All of Us or None Organizer with A New Way of Life. Reflecting on her experience of abuse as a child within the foster care system and later losing custody of her children as an adult, Figueroa continued, “Families are treated like animals—the system breaks us.”

Rally participants discussed the need for a system that recognizes the strength and importance of family, community, and culture in a child’s life and prioritizes family members as the first option for the placement of children. “The care of my daughter by my aunt made it a lot easier for me to be involved in her life and gave me the strength and encouragement to get myself together,” said Chantell Waterhouse, an All of Us or None Organizer with A New Way of Life. “This is what all parents and children deserve.”

The rally consisted of over 35 community activists and members of the public and was organized by A New Way of Life Reentry Project, All of Us or None, CripJustice, Family Reunification, Equity & Empowerment (FREE), Underground Scholars, and Starting Over, Inc.

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About A New Way of Life
In 1998, Susan Burton founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL) to help women, families, and communities break the cycle and heal from the formidable experiences of incarceration. ANWOL advances multi-dimensional solutions to the effects of incarceration, including: (1) providing housing and support to formerly incarcerated women for successful community reentry, family reunification, and individual healing; (2) working to restore the civil rights of formerly incarcerated people; and (3) empowering, organizing, and mobilizing formerly incarcerated people as advocates for social change and personal transformation.

A New Way of Life is confronting harmful stereotypes and demonstrating that alternatives to incarceration are possible. ANWOL is breaking the cycle of recidivism, repairing families, and developing leaders. The organization’s approach is built upon four key values that are necessary to promote community reentry after incarceration: (1) every person has inherent value and holds the power of possibility and transformation within them; (2) public resources are better invested in opportunities for transformation than on prisons and punishment; (3) formerly incarcerated people must be at the forefront in creating solutions to the incarceration crisis; and (4) incarceration of a family member affects the entire family and the healing process must involve the entire family. For more information about A New Way of Life Reentry Project, visit: www.anewwayoflife.org.

Los Angeles (March 7, 2022) – A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL) announces that MacKenzie Scott has made a significant gift to our nonprofit organization. Scott’s gift comes at an exciting time in our organization’s history as ANWOL has developed a number of new initiatives to continue to serve the holistic needs of formerly incarcerated people.

ANWOL Founder Susan Burton said, “We are thrilled to receive this level of support to continue our freedom work.” Co-Director Michael Towler added, “We are humbled that MacKenzie Scott has recognized the important work that we do here at A New Way of Life Reentry Project.” Co-Director Pamela Marshall noted, “This will go towards supporting formerly incarcerated communities that have been historically oppressed and forgotten.”

This gift will support our core mission of promoting healing, power, and opportunity for formerly incarcerated people. Services that will benefit include our Family Reunification Legal Team, which offers pro bono legal services to support formerly incarcerated parents to reunite with their children, and our SAFE Housing Network, which is a national and international network of allied nonprofits offering reentry services to formerly incarcerated communities. This is in addition to our housing, advocacy, leadership training, and clean slate pro bono legal services.

This gift is a call for all communities to recognize and own the effects that systemic oppression and mass incarceration have had on our society. The movement to end systemic oppression and mass incarceration must not forget women and LGBT communities of color.

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About A New Way of Life
In 1998, Susan Burton founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL) to help women, families, and communities break the cycle and heal from the formidable experiences of incarceration. ANWOL advances multi-dimensional solutions to the effects of incarceration, including: (1) providing housing and support to formerly incarcerated women for successful community reentry, family reunification, and individual healing; (2) working to restore the civil rights of formerly incarcerated people; and (3) empowering, organizing, and mobilizing formerly incarcerated people as advocates for social change and personal transformation.

A New Way of Life is confronting harmful stereotypes and demonstrating that alternatives to incarceration are possible. ANWOL is breaking the cycle of recidivism, repairing families, and developing leaders. The organization’s approach is built upon four key values that are necessary to promote community reentry after incarceration: (1) every person has inherent value and holds the power of possibility and transformation within them; (2) public resources are better invested in opportunities for transformation than on prisons and punishment; (3) formerly incarcerated people must be at the forefront in creating solutions to the incarceration crisis; and (4) incarceration of a family member affects the entire family and the healing process must involve the entire family. For more information about A New Way of Life Reentry Project, visit: www.anewwayoflife.org.

About SAFE Housing Network
Since 2018, the SAFE Housing Network has provided a model and framework for supporting formerly incarcerated individuals nationwide. This network of 16 authorized replicators modeled after the reentry philosophy and services of A New Way of Life Reentry Project operates across 11 states, 3 countries, and offered over 450 individuals reentry services in 2020. SAFE Housing Network members receive nonprofit and reentry support from ANWOL through monthly zoom workshops, annual training retreats, and additional administrative support. For more information about the SAFE Housing Network, visit: https://anewwayoflife.org/safe-housing-network/.

Los Angeles (June 24, 2021) – A New Way of Life (ANWOL) stands with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia L. Fudge’s commitment to “ensure that people leaving prison and jails are supported in their reentry to the community.” Access to stable housing is central to this commitment.

Research shows, as Secretary Fudge recognizes, “that people who lack stable housing following incarceration face a higher likelihood of rearrest and reincarceration.” UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies’ Million Dollar Hoods Project reports that in 2016 there “was one houseless arrest for every two houseless people” in Los Angeles compared to 1 arrest out of every 33 people for the total population. In Bakersfield, CA, there were “22 arrests for each houseless person” compared to “1 arrest for every 25 housed people” in 2017.

It would be all too easy to demonize houseless people as deserving of their arrests, but the fact of the matter is that stable housing is both inaccessible for whole swaths of communities—especially formerly incarcerated individuals—and carries with it numerous deterrents to incarceration, such as access to privacy and protections from the unreasonable search and seizure of one’s private property. Stable housing, likewise, brings with it numerous benefits such as increased contact with local and national politics and the ability to secure long-term employment.

These are amongst the many reasons—along with the fundamental dignity and worth of every human—it matters that formerly incarcerated people are 10 times more likely to experience houselessness than the general public and constitute 70% of the unsheltered houseless population. As HUD Secretary Fudge states, too many people “are caught in a revolving door between homelessness and reincarceration.”

We at ANWOL have long recognized and been an advocate for the importance of stable housing for formerly incarcerated people. Since our founding in 1998, ANWOL has provided safety and support in our safe homes for over 1,300 women and children. In 2020, we provided safety and support for 94 women, of whom 82 were mothers of young children. Ninety percent of the women we served met benchmarks identified as necessary for successful community reentry, and one of the women were re-incarcerated. We provided this support for all 94 women at less than ½ the cost of incarceration.  

A New Way of Life looks forward to working with HUD and California Public Housing Authorities to provide stable housing to formerly incarcerated people. ANWOL likewise supports HUD’s decision to review “existing HUD policies and regulations that limit access to housing and HUD assistance among people with criminal convictions” and publish “findings regarding best and promising practices on reentry housing.” Though we support HUD’s commitment to ensuring that landlords’ denial of housing applicants on the basis of criminal records are not in violation of Fair Housing policies, we call upon state and federal governments to amend the Fair Housing Act to recognize having a criminal record as a protected characteristic.

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About A New Way of Life

 In 1998, Susan Burton founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL) to help women, families, and communities break the cycle and heal from the formidable experiences of incarceration. ANWOL advances multi-dimensional solutions to the effects of incarceration, including: (1) providing housing and support to formerly incarcerated women for successful community reentry, family reunification, and individual healing; (2) working to restore the civil rights of formerly incarcerated people; and (3) empowering, organizing, and mobilizing formerly incarcerated people as advocates for social change and personal transformation.

A New Way of Life is confronting harmful stereotypes and demonstrating that alternatives to incarceration are possible. ANWOL is breaking the cycle of recidivism, repairing families, and developing leaders. The organization’s approach is built upon four key values that are necessary to promote community reentry after incarceration. (1) Every person has inherent value and holds the power of possibility and transformation within them; (2) Public resources are better invested in opportunities for transformation than on prisons and punishment; (3) Formerly incarcerated people must be at the forefront in creating solutions to the incarceration crisis; and (4) Incarceration of a family member affects the entire family and the healing process must involve the entire family. For more information about A New Way of Life Reentry Project, visit www.anewwayoflife.org.