Click here for pictures from the symposium.

Click here for videos of the symposium panels and the keynote address.

California’s correctional system is failing in its primary mission - protecting public safety. The prison population currently is at an all-time high, with more than 173,000 inmates housed in facilities designed to hold half that number. Overcrowded conditions inside prisons walls are unsafe for inmates and staff. Packed beyond capacity, the state’s correctional institutions provide few opportunities for willing offenders to turn there lives around and prepare for their release. The failure to rehabilitate and prepare paroled prisoner for re-entry contributes substantially to greater criminality in our communities and guarantees high recidivism rates, as failed parolees are returned to the prison system.

In May 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 900, the “Public Safety and Offender Rehabilitation Services Act of 2007,” in response to the crisis in the prisons. The bill commits at least $7 billion in funding for the expansion of bed space in current prisons and new county jails, as well as funding for new local “reentry” centers to facilitate inmate transition from prison into the community. This symposium will review whether AB 900 creates a viable framework for a long-term solution to California’s prison crisis.

The symposium will provide a forum for evaluating, from diverse perspectives, other reforms necessary to fix California’s correctional system and debate which approaches will most effectively and appropriately achieve a meaningful reduction in California’s prison population.

Gold Sponsor

Rosen, Bien & Galvan, LLP

Green Sponsors

California Prison Focus
ABA - Criminal Justice Section
California Bar Association - Criminal Law Section
USF San Quentin Trust Alliance
Lance Center for Catholic Studies & Social Thought
USF Peace & Justice Studies Program
Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and Common Good
USF Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF)