Victoria Valenzuela Substack
Formerly incarcerated people with violent felonies often lose custody of their children, even if they demonstrated rehabilitation and contribute to the community. A newly passed law could change that.
It was not uncommon that people who spent years — even decades — seeking redemption and rehabilitation in prison, proceeding to seek education and make meaningful contributions to society after their release, would often lose their parental rights and still be unable to regain custody of their kids despite all their good work.
Many refused to accept that and continued to seek ways to reunite with their children. This year, those efforts took shape in a bill, AB 1201, that would streamline and expand the process for parents with violent felonies unrelated to children to restore their parental rights and regain custody by giving them access to a social worker, parenting and domestic violence classes, transportation to visits, therapy, housing assistance and more.
Today, that bill passed and was signed into a law by Governor Newsom.
Newsom’s action catches California up with nearly every other state in having reunification laws that include parents with violent felonies, as California was one of two of the only states that did not provide this. Now, more justice-impacted families will have the opportunity to stay together, and more children will experience improved adult outcomes as they grow up with family, not in the system, according to Starting Over, Inc., a bill sponsor.
In a press release from today, Starting Over, Inc. stated:
This landmark achievement disrupts the cycle of family separation & intergenerational trauma. Furthermore, it represents an important step toward the California we envision for our children: a future divesting from systems rooted in policing and incarceration and instead centering healing, transformation, restoration, family, and meaningful resources for our communities.
The bill was championed by formerly incarcerated people who have firsthand experience with loss of parental rights, “drawing from their own experiences with the grief and loss of separation while holding fast to their love for their children,” reported Starting Over, Inc.
In an interview with Bolts before the bill was signed, Fidel Chagolla, who works with Starting Over, Inc., said, “I never had a clue you could change the law,” Chagolla said. “But from being a part of all these different organizations … I’ve learned that yes, you can change them, and the way they get changed is by people that have been directly impacted to talk about what those experiences have been.”
Chagolla’s motivation to pass the bill was to reunite with his daughter, who was six weeks old when she was taken but is now 10. When she was a baby, he used to visit her in a child welfare office as often as he could and bring her little necessities like a stroller, diapers, formula, and a car seat. He recalled “it was all I could do.”
After he officially lost his parental rights, he made a promise to his daughter that he would never stop fighting for her.
“I didn’t know how, but I told her that I’ll never stop trying to get her back, and I’ll figure out something so I can get her back, because I’m not giving up,” Chagolla said.
Now that the law passed, hundreds of other people he has encountered in similar situations through his work with Starting Over, Inc. will get services that help them start the process to get their children back. However, Chagolla noted that the new law doesn’t automatically reunite parents with their children and they have to go through a process.
“It doesn’t mean it’s going to automatically give your children back to you, it just means that you’re going to be able to work towards getting your children back,” Chagolla told Bolts.
Assemblymember Corey Jackson, who introduced the bill, told Bolts in an interview before the bill passed:
“At the end of the day, everyone is stronger, including the community and including California, when we can keep families together, and the fact that we took out the ability for judges to look at each case individually, I think has been a disservice to everybody. We are righting a wrong, and I think we’ll have stronger families because of it.”
Victoria Valenzuela is an independent journalist based in Los Angeles covering the criminal legal system, immigrant justice, gender equality, and activism. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Intercept, the Los Angeles Times, ScheerPost, and other publications. She holds a master’s degree in specialized journalism from USC, with a focus on social justice and investigations. A system-impacted Mexican American woman, she centers the voices of people confronting incarceration and oppression—and the communities organizing to fight back.
Support Victoria’s independent journalism by subscribing to her Substack, where she examines injustice, challenges powerful institutions, and shares stories of grassroots resistance. Your subscription helps sustain reporting rooted in lived experience and the conviction that nobody is voiceless.
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