OUR PLATFORM

​Decarcerate Alameda County has a vision for a just and healthy Alameda County that places at the center those communities currently targeted and fast-tracked to Santa Rita Jail. We are committed to #DefendBlackLives and principled in our organizing methodologies to amplify those who are directly impacted by criminalization and incarceration. We focus on strategies that reduce the jail population and divest from incarceration and policing. We are in deep solidarity with our movement allies fighting for life affirming resources that keep our communities whole and are determined to prioritize the money we shift away from imprisonment into their priority areas.

​In recent decades policing and incarceration have been increasingly used to respond to political, economic, and social problems resulting in mass incarceration and community instability. At the same time, the government has abandoned institutions and practices that actually address what our most marginalized communities need. A local manifestation of this trend was Alameda County’s plan in spring 2020 to spend $318 million to hire more deputies and jail staff at Santa Rita Jail, instead of investing in community-based mental health treatment and other programs and services that have proven to promote health and safety for all. Below is our three pronged platform:

FREE PEOPLE FROM SANTA RITA JAIL​

​We demand the District Attorney, the courts, and the Sheriff's department decarcerate Santa Rita Jail by 50% by 2022.

​​As of January 2021, there are currently 2,100 people in Santa Rita Jail.
There should be no more than 1,050 people at Santa Rita Jail by 2022. 
​
  1. Stop funneling people into the jail
  2. Release people who are currently incarcerated
  3. End the contracts for incarceration of federal and Monterey County prisoners at Santa Rita
  4. Close housing units in Santa Rita Jail
  5. Reject electronic monitoring
  6. Retain and expand the Zero Bail schedule
  7. Halt the mental health expansion of the jail
  8. Stop leasing jail space to other municipalities

DIVEST FROM INCARCERATION & POLICING

We demand that the Board of Supervisors defund the Sheriff by 50% by 2024 or 2026 (in three or five years).

​In Fiscal Year 20-21, the sheriff's budget is currently $500M. 

  1. Slash Sheriff’s Office county funding and move funds to community programs
  2. ​Rescind the $106 million budget annual increase to Santa Rita Jail
  3. Ban the acquisition and use of militarized equipment in Alameda County, beginning with Oakland
  4. Ban the use of any county resources to collaborate with ICE, including county staffing and county databases
  5. Ban ICE from Santa Rita Jail lobby and all release areas including SRJ parking lot
  6. Responsibly release people from SRJ by notifying ACILEP, Alameda Rapid Response Networks, of non-citizen folks who could be targeted by Immiigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) upon release
  7. Remove Sheriff deputies from Peralta Colleges and other campuses
  8. Stop arresting sex workers and victims of sex trafficking

INVEST IN COMMUNITY HEALTH

​We demand the Board Supervisors redirect $250M from the Sheriff’s office into life affirming resources, that include community-based pre-trial, re-entry, and housing services
​
  1. Work with the City of Oakland to implement Black New Deal
  2. Increase resources for non-police crisis intervention
  3. Improve rapid screening, assessment, and coordination of care for people in economic and mental health crises
  4. Fully fund community-based mental health programs to meet needs of people with serious mental illness at risk of incarceration because of lack of care
  5. Increase number of crisis stabilization beds, sobering centers, recovery residencies, and emergency housing
  6. Increase community capacity for step-down services and short-term treatment programs that provide continuity of care and intensive post-discharge treatment in community. 
  7. Fund affordable and accessible child care, including emergency child care vouchers for families impacted by the housing crisis (from Parent Voices)
  8. Increase affordable, permanent, long-term supportive housing and renter protections
  9. Expand pre-trial release programs and criteria
  10. Expand pre-booking diversion 
  11. Expand restorative and transformative justice programs
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