Shakeer Rahman (’17), attorney and community organizer with Los Angeles Community Action Network and the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, coauthored an op-ed for Truthout discussing how a recent ruling affirming a California prison closure creates opportunities with millions in public savings and urging the Newsom administration to shut down more prisons (“California Organizers Are Creating Momentum for Statewide Prison Closures,” Dec. 12). “[A]s prisons are closed, a fairer future can be created. Community investment strategies providing a just transition to healthier economies can be adopted to direct some of the hundreds of millions of dollars saved by prison closure into securing financial futures in more sustainable industries like environmental protection, emergency management and infrastructure improvement. More incarcerated people can be safely released from prison and allowed to return to their communities and loved ones with the support they need. Prisons must be fully and permanently shut down.”