Asian Prisoners Support Committee

The mission of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC) is to provide support to Asian & Pacific Islander prisoners and educate the broader community about the growing number of Asians & Pacific Islanders in the United States being imprisoned, detained, and deported. We seek to address and challenge root causes of this crisis such as the deterioration of our educational system, the criminalization of our youth, and the lack of access to resources for low-income immigrants and communities.

The Asian & Pacific Islander (API) prisoner population grew by 250% between 1990 and 2000. In Oakland, CA, several API groups had very high arrest rates, including Samoans (who had the highest arrest rate of any racial/ethnic group in the city, 140 per 1,000), Cambodians (63 per 1,000), Laotians (52 per 1,000) and Vietnamese (28 per 1,000). In the California prison system, APIs are officially categorized as “Others,” a fitting description for a population that is so often overlooked.

Founded in 2002, APSC is based in Oakland and works primarily with inmates at San Quentin and Solano state prisons and the reentry population in Alameda County. APSC is the only organization in the nation with a mission to provide culturally competent services and support specifically for the API incarcerated and formerly incarcerated population.