The Honorable Loni Hancock
1515 Clay Street
Suite 2202
Oakland, CA 94612

Phone: (510) 286-1333
Fax: (510) 286-3885

Dear Senator Hancock:

The legislation addressing the expansion of the criteria for the Community Prisoner Mother Program and the Family Foundation programs, specifically SB210 is of paramount interest to me. It would be a tragedy to have the current participants subjected to State imposed trauma as their children will be separated from the only stable life they have known. We assure you that these services are of paramount importance to the community. It is imperative that we have alternative sentencing programs in which mothers can receive the treatment that they need while their children are also being allowed to heal and thrive as well. We urge you to take action to ensure that these programs continue. This issue directly impacts not only the current families that are being served in these programs but it also impacts the viability of future families being able to benefit from these valuable services.

We are primarily concerned about the children that will be impacted by these current closures because these children will be separated once again from their parent and in most cases will be put into an already overburdened child welfare system.  Other aspects of this same issue are how it will affect the families that are involved with these offenders and the extra hardships these closures will have on them. For these reasons we urge you to take immediate action as the regular legislative calendar will force these women to be sent back to prison even if SB210 passes in January.  

Thank you for your consideration of my viewpoint on this matter. We believe that it is an important issue, and would like to see the legislation be enacted urgently to ensure the continuation of these valuable programs.

Sincerely,