What is this bill about?
AB 1645 will clarify the definition of “excessive contact” in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) visitation rooms, ensuring that visitors can hug and hold the hands of their loved ones during visitation in California’s prison.
How does it align with yli’s values?
CDCR’s existing physical contact policy is restrictive, dehumanizing, and inconsistently enforced. While regulations technically permit brief embraces, kisses at the start and end of visits, hand-holding, and holding children, those actions have at times been classified as “excessive” at the discretion of individual facilities and correctional officers.
This ambiguity has devastating consequences for women, children, and families, who navigate every visit with fear and uncertainty. The most extreme consequence can be the denial of a person’s freedom through a visiting-related rules violation, which can be issued for conduct as simple as a hug deemed too long by a correctional officer. Children visiting incarcerated parents need physical connection for healthy emotional and behavioral development, yet current policies discourage the very interactions that support these critical bonds. When basic human touch is policed unpredictably, visitation becomes a source of trauma and anxiety rather than connection.
yli partners with thousands of youth across the state, the majority of whom are low-income youth of color. We witness first hand the impacts of our state’s harmful “justice” system on their lives, and are staunch advocates of measures that will reduce the criminalization and incarceration of our loved ones – and ensure their dignified treatment while incarcerated.
This policy aligns with our Racial Justice Platform, which addresses the impacts of the carceral system on communities of color.
What is yli doing about it?
We have just submitted a letter endorsing this bill, and we are showing our support on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Who supports this bill?
Sponsors:
- Bridges of Hope
- Empowering Women Impacted by Incarceration
- Essie Justice Group