Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed an ambitious transformation of California’s prison system, a move he describes as the “next step in our pursuit of true rehabilitation, justice, and safer communities through this evidence-backed investment, creating a new model for safety and justice—the California Model—that will lead the nation.”
Three workshops will be held in Gracey Room at Merced County Library on July 30 and Aguest 2, 2025. In these public workshops, we invite Central Valley communities to reflect and engage in dialogue on prisons, incarceration, and reform, and to offer lessons and insights that may be of value in the state’s pursuit of “true rehabilitation, justice, and safer communities.”
Following the workshop, participants will be invited to submit reflections that may be featured as part of a display during a fall conference, or considered for publication in an edited anthology. The workshops, conference, and anthology, are designed to create space for voices from the Central Valley to be present in the ongoing discussion on prison reform in California and to provide the state with an important repository of knowledge coming from people living along the Highway 99 corridor, communities where prisons are a known part of the landscape. Community knowledge from the Central Valley must inform and travel to Sacramento as swiftly as the knowledge flowing to the capital from the San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles regions. These workshops place that knowledge in motion.
Each workshop features 10-15 participants and lasts 75 minutes.
Please fill out the webform below with your contact information and preferred workshop time.
