Felony Murder Elimination Project asks our supporters and advocates to act today to support the HUGS Act, Assembly Bill 1645. Bridges of Hope, Empowering Women Impacted by Incarceration, and Essie Justice Group are sponsoring AB 1645 – HUGS Act, authored by Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez (D54) to ensure that California’s prison visiting rooms are places of dignity and care, not sites of over policing and punishment.
California’s current prison visitation system is governed by vague, inconsistent standards, and unclear policies that leave women, children, and families vulnerable and facilities largely unaccountable. Women, particularly Black women, are the primary visitors of incarcerated people. National research shows that 1 in 4 women, and 1 in 2 Black women, have a family member in prison. Research has also found that 195,000 children have parents incarcerated in California state prisons. Visitation is one of the few lifelines between incarcerated people and their families.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) 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 (Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 15, § 3175), those actions have at times been classified as “excessive” at the discretion of individual facilities and correctional officers. In practice, even explicitly permitted activities have been arbitrarily classified as “excessive,” often resulting in abrupt visit terminations, and restrictions on future visits. Enforcement varies widely not just between different facilities, but day-to-day within the same facility.
The HUGS Act will establish clear, consistent guidelines for non-violent, non-sexual physical contact across all California prisons. By improving the quality of visits and reducing arbitrary enforcement, AB 1645 will encourage more frequent family visitation–which research has found reduces both prison misconduct and recidivism rates. Maintaining family connection during incarceration is one of the most important policies to support successful reentry.
We ask our supporters to send a letter of support by the end of this month in championing this legislation that helps strengthen the families of incarcerated people.
Access a template letter of support here —>>> AB 1645 Hugs Act Org. Letter of Support
You can also access the AB 1645 Fact Sheet to learn more..
We are deeply grateful to our supporters who take action on important legislation and policy that aims to create a fairer, more just system, and will continue to work alongside all of you toward our shared goals.
