Executive Summary

For my public health field study, I worked at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) from February 13, 2023 to March 24, 2023. LSPC is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, CA whose mission and values include community organization around justice-impacted people, advocacy for restoration of human and civil rights for the formerly incarcerated, and to raise public awareness of structural racism in the carceral system. Much of their work focuses on ending mass incarceration, alleviating poor prison conditions, and assisting with barriers to re-entry after release. Significant accomplishments include litigation towards ending long-term solitary confinement in California and protecting pregnant incarcerated individuals. Other notable work includes policy and advocacy towards fair chance housing and a Quest for Democracy Day, a statewide rally at the Capitol to support formerly incarcerated individuals and their rights. Lastly, LSPC is the parent organization of All of Us or None (AOUON), which is a grassroots advocacy organization whose members are formerly incarcerated as well, or otherwise justice-impacted.

My preceptors at LSPC were Andrew Ntim, a Justice Catalyst Fellow, and Debra Slone, a staff attorney. Most of my work was directly with the legal team, although I also coordinated with some policy and advocacy team members. While there was no primary or singular project that I worked on, I assisted on the legal team’s work towards fulfilling a homelessness prevention grant, investigating the current conditions of pregnant incarcerated women, and organizing and responding to letters from prisoners requesting legal assistance. My time at LSPC focused on the well-documented and significant interaction between housing as a social determinant of health, structural racism, and mass incarceration (Blankenship et al., 2023).

Andrea Lapira, PA-S, CPH-Provisional

Course Instructor: Nemesia Kelly, MPH

March 24, 2023