Decarcerate Sacramento Celebrates Victory Over Stalled Jail Expansion

Criminal justice reform activists won a huge victory this month, when Sacramento County Supervisors walked away from an $89 million plan to expand Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center (RCCC) in Elk Grove.

Opposition to the plan was led by Decarcerate Sacramento (DS), a grassroots group born in early July as a response to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors’ April 23 decision to start accepting construction bids for the project.

Moving quickly, DS members first appeared before the board on July 16, with a warning: Expanding RCCC would aggravate the county’s addiction to incarceration, particularly of the poor and minorities.

Just as quickly, DS evolved into a coalition of private citizens and nonprofits, including Sacramento Area Congregations Together, which is supported by The California Endowment.

Sacramento schools approve new campus security plan

The Sacramento City Unified School District's board approved a new safety plan for the upcoming school year, which includes a reduction in the number of school resource officers for the district and takes the SROs off campus.

The $1.4 million proposal, called Reimagine School Safety, aims to increase training, specifically in the area of implicit bias, provide greater mental health support and reduce the number of school resource officers to perhaps three.

Sacramento faith leaders hold vigil of hope, pray for victims of mass shootings


SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento faith leaders, civic leaders, and members of the community grieved the lives lost in the recent mass shootings during a vigil held at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral on Friday evening.

The service also included the reading of community names and the number of dead, where mass shootings have occurred in recent years.

"I came tonight because the list of gun tragedies is just too long," said Cindy Friday. 

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Congresswoman Doris Matsui were among those who attended the vigil.

"We must not accept the common refrain that nothing will ever change," said Steinberg. "However long it takes to change the laws and the culture around gun violence, it will be too long but never too late." 

Monta Said, who attended the service with her son, told ABC10 she left feeling hopeful.

"It was a very cleansing feeling to know that so many people were on the same wavelength," Said said. "The point is that we are all suffering from this tragedy, and I think we all have this sense of hurting right now, as a nation, and as a people.  

How local advocates are bracing for potential ICE raids

As massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across the country were expected on Sunday, fear ran high across Northern California. 

The supposed raids were said to target some 2,000 undocumented families who've gotten final deportation orders.

Sacramento was not one of the communities being targeted in this operation, neither was Stockton or Modesto, but that doesn't mean the news Wasn't frightening for a lot of people. Activists across these communities said for the immigrant communities they work with, the fear was very real.

"Everyday it's hard," Antonio Campos, a Sacramento Area Congregations Together Board Member said.

From Sacramento to Stockton, the fear in the region has reached a new high.

Though Sacramento Isn’t on the List, Local Activists Prepare to Help if ICE Comes to the Area

Local advocates are preparing to support those living in the country illegally if Immigration and Customs Enforcement takes action in Sacramento.

Sacramento is not on the list of cities supposedly being targeted in the ICE raids, but advocates want to be prepared just in case. So, they spent  Sunday giving advice to people who have entered the country without legal permission.

At Sunday morning services across Sacramento, sermons shift focus from lessons on the Bible— to lessons on churchgoers’ rights.

“We are one community and we need to protect each other,” said Antonio Campos.

Campos and other activists with Sacramento ACT, are giving presentations on how those who entered the country without authorization can respond should ICE come to their door.

‘Know your rights’: Sacramentans mobilize against anticipated nationwide ICE raids

Diana Campos, organizer for Sacramento Area Congregations Together, stood before the congregation of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on Sunday as nationwide ICE raids were expected to begin.

“If ICE comes to your door, simply don’t open it,” she said in Spanish. “You have the right to remain silent.”

Inattentive children laughed and asked to be picked up as parents hushed them and made note of the hotline number Campos provided: “Is everyone ready? 916-245-6773.”

As ICE raids near in 10 major cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, immigrant communities and immigrant-rights organizations have mobilized against what they say are the government’s strategies of fear-mongering and obfuscation.

Representatives of Sac ACT will travel to congregations across Sacramento to inform immigrants, undocumented and documented alike, of their rights, channeling community-wide fear and anxiety into well-informed action.

“People are hungry for the information,” Campos said. “People want to get connected to resources.”

‘Hundreds of calls’: Immigrant families brace for raids that could include Sacramento

Sacramento immigrant families are bracing for a series of nationwide raids the Trump administration is expected to launch Sunday, which activists warned could include the Sacramento area.

Ever since President Trump announced a plan to deport “millions” of undocumented immigrants in a June 17 tweet, many immigrant families in Sacramento have been living in fear.

“Since then, we have received hundreds of calls,” said Gladys Puente, program coordinator for the city of Sacramento’s Families United Education and Legal Network, or FUEL. “This has instilled a lot of fear in families.”

FUEL officials have received information that San Francisco and Northern California may be a target of raids, Puente said. Los Angeles is also on a list of 10 potential U.S. cities where raids may take place, and Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on Twitter this week that “(r)umors of mass ICE raids in major cities this weekend is stirring up anxiety within our immigrant communities. My message to each of you: Regardless of your immigration status, be prepared. It’s critical that you know your rights.”

There was an uptick in immigration enforcement in Northern California starting July 7, mostly in the Bay Area, said Hamid Yazdan Panah of the Northern California Rapid Response and Immigrant Defense Network.

Sacramento can solve its homeless crisis, but it will take commitment from all of us

We also know what does not work: continuing to criminalize people experiencing homelessness. We cannot “arrest our way out” of this crisis. We must address our affordable housing crisis and organize our community to meet the housing needs for all Sacramentans.

We must reduce the human misery we see every day in Sacramento and expand shelter capacity in every possible way.