Advocacy Day 2007

Listen to a WAMC Radio report on Advocacy Day

Advocacy Day flyer

Call to Action

With over 300 people in attendance, the Coalition’s 13th Annual Advocacy Day on March 6 was our most successful Advocacy Day ever. Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry, Chair of the Committee on Correction and annual sponsor of the Coalition’s Advocacy Day, started off the morning session at Westminster Presbyterian Church by welcoming participants and reiterating the importance of giving legislators an opportunity to hear first-hand from women who have been directly affected by incarceration. After Assemblymember Aubry’s welcome, seven representatives of the Advocacy Day Organizing Committee read the Coalition’s Call to Action. Tina Reynolds, Co-Chair of the Incarcerated Mothers Committee, introduced the recipients of the Coalition’s Advocate for Justice Awards. In recognition of their dedication and commitment to working on behalf of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, and making change in their communities, the Coalition presented awards to Denise Dunkley, Carole Eady, Sherri M., Lorrayne Patterson, Anisah Thompson, and Stacey Thompson. After receiving their awards, each woman spoke about one of the five Coalition’s 2007 priorities:

• increased funding for visiting and reunification programs that help keep families connected when a mother is in prison,
• Medicaid coverage for women transitioning from prison and jail back to their communities,
• better health services for women in prison,
• merit time and early release from prison for domestic violence survivors incarcerated for committing crimes as a result of abuse, and,
• further reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws and increased funding for drug treatment and alternatives to incarceration for women.