California Stops Raiding Released Prisoners’ Gate Money
California prisoners will benefit from a policy change announced by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) on December 4, 2024. Bowing to pressure from politicians, as well as a class action lawsuit, the CDCR will no longer garnish gate money paid to prisoners upon release for related items like street clothes and local transportation.
Prisoners released from CDCR custody have gotten $200 since the law was passed in 1973. The amount has never increased while inflation has eroded over 85% of its buying power—the gate money given a released state prisoner in 2024 would need to be over $1,374 to have the same value.
So it was outrageous that CDCR had reduced this paltry sum even further to reimburse its expenses to provide suitable clothing and a ride home when prisoners were released. The class action suit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court in September 2024, sought an injunction to stop the practice and to pay reparations to approximately 1 million former prisoners whose gate money was garnished.
“We’re frustrated and disappointed that it took a lawsuit being filed to change an unlawful Department of Corrections’ policy, which should have been in compliance with the law from the very beginning,” said Chesa Boudin, the former San Francisco District Attorney who was one of the attorneys who filed the suit.
Boudin was especially irate that CDCR’s policy so clearly violated the gate money statute by instructing its employees to “routinely withhold[] some or all of the funds based on eligibility criteria of its own making, criteria that violate the plain language of the law.”
Lawmakers quickly moved to fund an additional $1.8 million to cover the CDCR’s estimated cost to jettison the program and provide clothing and transportation to released prisoners for free. That was added to the state budget, which was then signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in September 2024.
Meanwhile, the suit will continue to try and recover gate money already confiscated from released prisoners like lead plaintiff John Veasau, who got exactly none of his $200 when he walked out of Folsom State Prison in 2023. “We don’t want [CDCR] to think they got away with anything,” Boudin said. “We want them to at least pay for what they got coming, not only for us but for everybody who came before us and after us.” See: Veasau v. Calif. Dep’t of Corr. and Rehab., Cal. Super. (Cty. of Alameda), Case No. 24CV091030.
Additional source: CalMatters
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login