45th Anniversary Gala - Legal Services for Prisoners with Children

In 2023, we proudly commemorate 45 years of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, alongside two decades of All of Us or None. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all who joined us in celebration on October 12, 2023. At our Anniversary Gala, we had the honor of paying tribute to the remarkable Executive Director, Dorsey Nunn, and the recently retired Administrative Director, Hamdiya Cooks-Abdullah.

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Hamdiya's Tribute Video

Dorsey's Tribute Video

All Of US Or None and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children 20th/45 anniversary celebration at Bloc 15 in Oakland.

Honoring Hamdiya Cooks-Abdullah & Dorsey Nunn

Hamdiya Cooks-Abdullah has over 30 years of experience working on general issues facing women in prison. She is a former prisoner having served 20 years in the federal prison system and is currently the Administrative Director at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in San Francisco Ca. Her responsibilities are wide-ranging as she works to eradicate systematic discriminatory practices against formerly incarcerated people. Read more in program book.

Dorsey Nunn Prior to becoming Executive Director, he worked as a paralegal, community organizer, and program manager at LSPC and as a paralegal at the Prison Law Office. Dorsey’s leadership has helped to establish several local and national institutions and movement building projects including All of Us or None, Free at Last, Critical Resistance, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People and Families Movement. His commitment to anti-racist organizing is international. Read more in program book.

45th Anniversary Gala highlight reel

45th Anniversary Gala Program book

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Meet the Awardees

Ellen Barry founded Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in 1978. She served as the executive director of from 1978 to 2001. In the late ‘90s, along with Dorsey and 23 others, she helped found Critical Resistance. She received a Soros Senior Justice Fellowship in 1997, enabling her to work tirelessly on behalf of women prisoners, incarcerated parents, their children, and family members. Download the program to read more.

Helena Huang is a trailblazer in the U.S. social justice movement and a long-time friend of LSPC. Currently, she is Project Director of the Art for Justice Fund (A4J), a six-year initiative that disrupts mass incarceration by funding artists and advocates working in concert to transform the criminal legal system. Download the program to read more.

Aleah Bacquie Vaughn, Executive Director of the CJI Fund, was previously Deputy Director at the American Committee on Africa and The Africa Fund, where she championed the release of political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, and divestment from companies doing business with South Africa’s apartheid government. Download the program to read more.

Karen Shain has made significant contributions in addressing systemic inequalities in the United States. Shain worked at LSPC for more than 16 years. As the Policy Director, she led the campaign that ended the shackling of pregnant women in California prisons. Download the program to read more.