History
California Prison Moratorium Project (CPMP) began in the summer of 1998 in Oakland. Activists who had been fighting prisons for years saw the need for an organization that challenged California’s massive prison expansion. We realized there were few groups tackling one of the main causes for California's ever-expanding prison system: the age-old maxim, if you build 'em, they'll fill 'em. Quite simply, that until prisons were actually stopped being built, politicians and the prison industry would continue finding ways to fill the prisons that are built.
For our first six years, we were an all-volunteer organization. We worked with communities targeted for new prisons - all poor, all in rural California – and helped them fight off the unwanted industry of a prison.
In Farmersville, CPMP provided information to United Farm Worker organizers who worked with residents to successfully shoot down a corporation's proposal to build a 550-bed private prison in the small, agricultural town.
In El Centro, Imperial County, CPMP worked with residents to protest the construction of an immigrant detention center, adding to the two already-existing state prisons. Residents won their battle by successfully convincing the County Supervisors that the federal facility would cost the County $15 million in various developments, from roads to sewer and water infrastructure. The federal government was unwilling to pay the County the $15 million, and the County wasn't willing to take less.
One of CPMP's major fights was the campaign against Delano II prison. Delano, California is the historic home of the United Farm Workers, a small, agricultural town rife with a history of organizing and activism. Delano has been home to a 5,000 bed state prison since 1990. In 1999, Governor Gray Davis proposed building yet another 5,160 bed, maximum-security prison in Delano. CPMP helped put together a diverse coalition to fight the prison, including local activists, environmental organizations, community groups, and other anti-prison organizations such as Critical Resistance.
CPMP's local organizer went door-to-door collecting petition signatures against the proposal; we conducted extensive media work on the myths of prison construction; and began using many of the tools environmental organizations have been using for years to fight disastrous projects: filing comments within the required environmental impact reviews. CPMP and other organizations even filed a lawsuit on behalf of an endangered specie in the area, the Kangaroo Rat, arguing the impacts on the rat's habitat were too great to warrant the prison. In the end, the project was approved, but only after CPMP and many other organizations fought a long, hard battle that not only delayed construction significantly, it pushed the issue of prisons in the Central Valley onto California's radar screen. It also marked an important moment for environmental justice and anti-prison activists to come together (See “Joining Forces: Prison and Environmental Justice in recent California organizing” in Resources for more information).
Since 2002, we have moved the center of our organization to Fresno and now have two organizers on staff. We also have CPMP chapters in Oakland and Los Angeles, which have been instrumental in starting several new campaigns (see Campaigns).
