Milestones
1999: First ever CPMP Central Valley tour: 5 CPMP members visit rural activists in Tehachapi, Lindsay, and Farmersville to help plan campaign against a private prison.
2000
CPMP sponsors Rural Activism to Stop Prison Construction conference at UC Berkeley, bringing rural activists to share their experiences fighting prison construction with prison activists in the San Francisco Bay Area.
CPMP works with activists in El Centro (Imperial County) to stop a new prison/hospital for “sexually violent predators.”
CPMP joins campaign to defeat Proposition 21, an initiative that criminalizes youth and increases penalties for non-violent offenses such as graffitti. .
CPMP became involved in fight against a new federal prison in Mendota or Orange Cove.
Director Tracy Huling produces a film on prisons in the Central Valley, Yes In My Backyard. CPMP hosts film screenings in San Francisco, Fresno and Oakland (see Resources for more information).
2001
CPMP, Critical Resistance and other environmental justice organizations host Joining Forces: Environmental Justice and the Fight Against Prison Expansion, a conference in Fresno which builds bridges and develops common analysis between activists in the Central Valley and activists in California's urban areas.
CPMP and other organizations file “Friends of the Kangaroo Rat v. CDC,” an environmental lawsuit against Delano II prison, accompanied by an extensive grassroots organizing campaign.
CPMP helps organize actions and protests against the discriminatory planning process for the Mendota federal prison: environmental review documents and public meetings, released and conducted only in English in a 90 percent Spanish-speaking area, exclude the majority of people who will be directly impacted by the prison's construction.
CPMP works with activists to stop Herlong Federal Prison.
CPMP helps found the Central California Environmental Justice Network, an alliance of activists and community members fighting for safe, healthy environments for all of the Central Valley's residents.
2002
CPMP works with Lompoc activists to fight expansion of federal prison in Lompoc.
CPMP hires our first staff person, a part time organizer.
2003
CPMP helps establish Coalition for Effective Public Safety (CEPS), a group of anti-prison activists and labor organizers representing prison employees to advocate against prison expansion.
CPMP helps organize Education Not Incarceration rally in Sacramento, where 1,000 students, teachers and parents descended on the Capitol to advocate against prison expansion and for increased education funding.
CPMP works with Education Not Incarceration and the University of California Student Association on the relationship between raising higher education costs and and prison expansion.
CPMP continues participating in ENI coalition for another 3 years, working on conferences in Washington DC (04), Los Angeles (05) & Orlando (06). Organizes and co-writes the 'Education Not Incarceration' workshop for the conference.
2003-4
CPMP helps found and serves as board member for National Resource Center on Prisons and Communities, a national group based on CPMP's model of working with prison towns to highlight the impacts of prisons in communities where they are built.
2004
CPMP helps found Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), a coalition of groups working to reduce state spending on prison construction.
CPMP hires 2 new part time Fresno-based organizers.
CPMP works with Stockton residents to stop the Northern California Women's Facility, a shut-down women's state prison, from reopening. Organizes design workshop with Architects, Designers and Planners for Social Responsibility to help residents develop ideas for how else to use the prison facility.
CPMP reopens fight in Mendota against a federal prison, leading to demonstrations and protests.
CPMP helps found No New Jails Coalition in Los Angeles to fight Prop. A, an initiative which would have raised sales taxes to hire 1,000 more police. Proposition A is defeated.
2006
CPMP organizer Debbie Reyes awarded Soros Senior Fellowship by Open Society Institute, funding her move to full time work.
CPMP publishes our do-it-yourself guide to stopping prison construction in your town, How to Stop a Prison in Your Town (see Resources).
CPMP helps organize “Beyond Prisons Day” in Sacramento. 400 people attend two rallies and visit legislators to lobby against prison expansion.
2007
CPMP opens office in Fresno located near city college in the Tower District
CPMP hires 2nd Fresno-based organizer.
CPMP hosts a conference on prison issues in the Central Valley in Fresno
How to Stop a Prison in Your Town published in Spanish.
CPMP launches website.
2008
CPMP announces valley board positions
CPMP volunteers and organizers attend Critical Resistance 10th year anniversay brining over 40 valley participants to Oakland to attend workshops and events in Oakland
CPMP collaborates with Center for the Study of Political Graphics to show poster art of Prison Nation in 2009
2009
Due to the economic turmoil CPMP makes budget adjustments and closes its office temporarily to continue our work
CPMP Volunteers March to Board of Supervisors demanding to cut funding for incarceration and instead fund education and community resources
CPMP Holds 6 weeks of Workshops about the PIC, Incarcerating Women, Youth Organizing, Immigrant Detentions and more..
CPMP collaborates with UC Davis and valley environmental groups to address poverty, health, air quality and other environmental issues such as prisons to be include in a San Joaquin Valley Cumalitive Health Impact Project to be used to advocate for change.
CPMP participates with Students at Fresno State University to Walk Out estimating over 600 student, faculty and community participants
2010
Join Us March 4th for Statewide Student Walkout
and March 5 for March from Bakersfied to Sacramento protesting education budget cuts see homepage for meeting time
