Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC), founded by Ellen Barry, attorney, in 1998, now headed by Dorsey Nunn, Executive Director, is an organization that has advocated for incarcerated parents, their children and family members for 40 years. Formerly located in San Francisco, the organization recently purchased a building in Oakland’s Longfellow district on a quiet residential block. The impressive structure sits prominently on a corner at 44th and Market streets. Several businesses also share this site: from massage, child and marriage family therapists, to a vagina steam salon, the rental fees from these tenants cover the building’s mortgage almost to the penny— not bad for an organization which literally threw away $1, 214,000 dollars in rent for over 17 years, the executive director states. The recent sale of LSPC’s office space allowed the director to, in the words of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, “Do for self.”
Nunn, who is himself, formerly incarcerated (at 19) and was serving a life sentence, mentions often the fact that the Movement Building sits not far from Black Panther Party Headquarters, which launched an international movement for social justice and human rights that 52 years ago shook up the world, a world which included political prisoners and prisoners of war. As Kathleen Cleaver says, the BPP inspired and ignited the imagination of a generation. The same is true of LSPC, and organizations founded while Nunn has been at the helm or in the in the room: All of Us or None (15th Anniversary), California Coalition for Women Children (23rd year), and Critical Resistance celebrating its 20th Anniversary Sunday, Sept. 30, 12 noon to 3 p.m. 4400 Telegraph Avenue (in the adjacent parking lot). CR is just up the street from LSPC. Dorsey Nunn is one of the speakers.
LSPC, and more specifically AOUON’s leadership all point to such a legacy and beyond. It is hard to separate in recent years where All of Us or None stops and LSPC starts— the work over the past four decades is enormous from changing laws which make shackling pregnant mothers illegal to allowing intention to be a factor in sentencing hearings. Ban the Box has had major rippling affect across the country with significant changes to private and government policies on employment applications. Why must a person who has served time made to identify by his or her criminal record? Economic disparity and labels like felon or ex-con are huge causes in recidivism. We haven’t even mentioned campaigns to end Life Without Parole (LWOP) or the CA Habeas Project which allowed women who were battered to have cases reviewed for cause and sentencing relief.
Besides rental capital for the mortgage, fees from LSPC attorney Carol Strickland, lead council in a class action suit against the State of California for prisoners held in solitary confinement or the SHU or Ad Seg for indeterminate sentences for “gang affiliation,” were used for the building’s down payment. It was important to Nunn to hire formerly incarcerated people for the work, so the general contractor and contract supervisor as well as the majority of workers were from that community.
When one enters the bright open space—all 3,999 sq. feet, offices circle cubicles, a conference room just beyond this. Down the hall is a larger room which could be a banquet hall or a place where over 50 bikes and electric cars were parked for the raffle opening week. A few bathrooms and a kitchen complete the overview; however, the space is designed so that there is privacy when needed but the idea of conviviality or comradery is ever present—The Movement Center is a space shared among people who agree on what is most important—children and families affected by parental loss. It is a tragedy that is quantifiable. These Movement folks work hard and long hours to change outcomes.
The Annual Quest for Democracy Day is a time when Formerly Incarcerated People and Their Families (FICPF) converge on the state capital from throughout California— the tiniest cities and counties to the more sprawling municipalities. At the recent FICPF Movement conference in Miami, over 900 delegates contacted 82,000 people in two hours by phone, text and knocking on doors. What is compelling about this action is that those registering others to vote could not register to vote themselves. In Florida people over 1.6 million people with felony convictions will never be able to vote again (unless the law changes). Such is not the case in California. In California, one can even be incarcerated and still vote. Voter registration is just one of many campaigns LSPC has mounted over the 40 years. The deadline for the Nov. 6 election is Oct. 22.
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At the LSPC 40th Anniversary Gala, Wed., October 3, 6-9 p.m., featuring panelists: Michelle Alexander, attorney, professor and author, “The New Jim Crow,” Marc Lamont Hill, Ph.D., Professor, Host, BET News, and Vonya Quarles, Attorney, Formerly Incarcerated, Executive Director, Starting Over, Inc., the audience will learn more about this amazing social justice institution – LSPC, that now has a building! The LSPC Gala is at the Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Drive in Oakland. For tickets which start at $40 are available online at: prisonerswithchildren.org or call (415) 255-7036.
With a $1 million dollar budget, 18-20 employees – all affected by mass incarceration, and many volunteers, LSPC is no small player in the movement for justice for everyone, especially those forgotten by society: women, men and children in custody or on parole. At the breakfast Nunn wiped away a few tears as he reflected on all the family and friends who did not live to see that day, yet here LSPC sits, stronger than ever to continue the work. “It is a marriage,” Nunn says between “activism, litigation and policy.”
Some of the attorneys whose lives were shaped by LSPC and AOUON values are Bryan Stevenson, MacArthur Fellow and founder of the Equal Justice Institute (EJI) in Montgomery. EJI recently opened the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration. Oakland Mayoral Candidate, Pamela Price came by that Thursday to the preview VIP Breakfast. Others present the Hon. Desley Brooks, City of Oakland, Council person, with her mother and sister. Dr. Joseph Marshall, Director, “Alive and Free,” was also present along with sponsors, contractors, family of those honored on the Ancestor Memorial Wall and of course the Movement family.
Saturday afternoon at the Block Party there was live music on Market Street, chairs center stage for people to sit and eat and a tent with barbecue grills, the cooks serving burgers, veggies on skewers, chips, cookies and soda. Information tables about the organization were along one side, fresh popcorn pooped into bags and then mouths as fast as a volunteer filled them. However, it was the bike raffle, tour of the Freedom and Movement Center and free chair massage by Back in Action – a resident business that had the most activity.
Other allies in the work like Essie Justice recently held its meeting at the Movement Center. AOUON has its General Membership Meeting every 3rd Thursday at 6:30 p.m., and California Prison Focus, an organization that produces a highly regarded Quarterly Newspaper and has a weekly radio show 89.5 FM from 11:00 am to noon), is moving into the Movement Center soon.