CAPE (March)

Evelyn Espinoza

March

The first attempt at drawing attention to our cause was through the participation in the protest at the free speech area that took place on March 4^th, advertised as March Forth on March 4^th. My group is CAPE abbreviated for Citizens Advocating for Pre-Trial Expansion dealing with the issue on bails and pretrial expansion program. This event took place in the free speech area on campus at Fresno State. This was a great opportunity to get our issue across and gain an audience to provide awareness to an issue that affects many taxpayers. We want to create awareness for those individuals who are kept in jail awaiting trial without being prosecuted. We had set up a table where people were walking through to either get to class, library, or on their way off campus and we handed flyers to those who approached. The flyers provided important information and statistics on our issue in hopes that individuals would gain interest and want to join our movement to expand awareness and increase the chances for a movement. The larger our group can become the more power we will have and increase our ability to make a difference. We simplified the terminology to make it easy to understand we explained the problem and how they are being affected and gave alternatives and solutions. Some of the statistics included were that "more than 500 felony crimes qualify for realignment" and "taxpayers end up paying $100 dollars a day per prisoner" these were in hopes of gaining shock value and capturing immediate interest. These statistics are important because people need to hear the facts to understand the issue we are representing and realize where tax dollars are going. Fresno State students were shocked with the statistics and unaware of the pretrial expansion program. As students we are affected because taxpayer dollars are spent on prisoners when it can be rerouted to students and education. I enjoyed this event and talking to people so they become informed because they are directly affected and are the voice to make a difference.