Legal Services for Prisoners with Children California

Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) is one of the first organizations in the country that was formed to support people in prison, specifically women, at a time when their struggles were nearly invisible. We began our work 40 years ago, just before the rise of mass incarceration. Today over 70 million, or one in three Americans, have an arrest or conviction history. Generations of Black, Brown, Native, and low income families have disproportionately suffered from the political, emotional, economic, and health impacts of being targeted for incarceration.  At LSPC, we are on a mission to harness the collective power of the communities most impacted by incarceration to release imprisoned people; to restore human and civil rights to formerly incarcerated people; and to reunify families and communities.

Our commitment is deep and our impact has been profound. Over the last 40 years we have grown from a small law office to a national organization with a unique approach that engages in law, policy, communications, and community organizing to advance our work. We have expanded our focus from women in prison to include all incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and their families. We have seeded and served as an incubator to trailblazing organizations like Critical Resistance, Justice Now, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Prison Activist Resource Center and more. We have litigated dozens of cases resulting in trendsetting legal standards including expanding alternatives to incarceration, ending long term solitary confinement in California, and the protection of pregnant incarcerated women. Not only has our legal work protected the human rights and health of millions of currently and formerly incarcerated people, we’ve trained hundreds of attorneys and legal workers along the way.

All of Us or None is a project of LSPC. All of Us or None was started by formerly incarcerated leaders in California in 2003, and has grown into a national movement that positions formerly incarcerated people as experts and leaders at the forefront of the fight to end mass incarceration. We have trained thousands of formerly incarcerated people and their families as advocates, public speakers, and community organizers. Together, we’ve passed dozens of policies that have improved conditions for incarcerated people and removed barriers for people returning to our communities after incarceration.