Uncategorized

Symposium Looks at Alternatives to Incarceration

Published

13 years ago

April 5, 2013

By Andrew Cohen,
UC Berkeley News

The Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice has never shied away from difficult subjects, and its spring symposium—Race, Domestic, and Sexual Violence: From the Prison Nation to Community Resistance—was no exception.
Scholars, activists, and community members gathered recently to discuss the topic against the backdrop of a fast-growing U.S. prison system. The all-day symposium also explored alternatives to incarceration, including restorative justice and community-accountability programs, which lie outside the realm of law enforcement.
“Part of the Henderson Center’s mission is to elevate social justice issues that most people want to ignore or mischaracterize,” said Executive Director Wilda White ’83. “There are more perpetrators of sexual violence behind bars than ever before. We have become a prison nation, but the violence continues—especially against girls and women of color.”
According to University of Illinois-Chicago criminal justice and gender studies Professor Beth Richie, a well-intentioned strategy of the early anti-violence movement wound up harming minority communities.
“Advocates generalized the problem to gain mass support, but that backfired against Black women. It allowed people to deal with this type of violence as an individual, episodic issue, and to ignore root causes,” Richie said.

Wilda White, executive director, Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, speaks at symposium “Race, Domestic, and Sexual Violence: From the Prison Nation to Community Resistance.” Photo by Mona T. Brooks.

As awareness of sexual abuse grew in mainstream communities, the emerging anti-violence leadership “looked just like the people in power making decisions,” said UCLA Law Professor Kimberle Crenshaw. “When we heard how celebrities and middle-class white women were also affected, Black women fell out” of the class of people the anti-violence movement cared about.
Crenshaw also said male police officers routinely use troubling justifications for violence against women including the officers’ own masculinity, sexual orientation, and personality.
Berkeley Law Professor Jonathan Simon ’87, a prominent criminal law expert, moderated a panel entitled “Coalitions and Contradictions: Gender Violence and Social Movements.”
“The supersizing of American prisons as a solution to many complex social problems has been labeled by critics as a ‘New Jim Crow’ intended to reverse the gains of the civil rights movement,” Simon said. “Incarceration was also built up through the activism of many people with far more positive motivations.”
In the 1970s, anti-violence activists “were ultimately pulled into an alliance with law enforcement to advocate for more arrests and punishments,” Simon said. “Today, the critical work of reassessing this history and developing anti-violence strategies that don’t feed the prison system are essential to reimagining social justice for the 21st Century.”
Mimi Kim, a doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare, opened her presentation by quoting Simon’s acclaimed book “Governing Through Crime”: “Domestic violence has emerged over the last three decades as one of the clearest cases where a social movement has turned to criminalization as a primary tool of social justice.”
Kim described a successful program in Duluth, Minnesota, where close interaction among societal sectors produced an effective community response to sexual violence. But she also outlined the difficulties of replicating that model on a national scale. “What often begins as a hybrid partnership between civil society and the state often leads to subordination of civil society to the state,” Kim said. She stressed the importance of tapping “ways to confront this violence without engaging law enforcement.”

Oakland Post

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Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

7 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

11 months ago

January 30, 2025

Oakland Post

Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 city councilmember. File photo.

Special to The Post

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Published

12 months ago

January 11, 2025

Oakland Post

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.