Advocate for families, children of prison inmates to be honored at State Capitol

Dorothy Montgomery named 8th Assembly District’s Woman of the Year

SACRAMENTO– Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) announced today that she has selected long-time family advocate and West Sacramento resident Dorothy Montgomery to be the 8th Assembly District’s 2008 Woman of the Year. Montgomery will be honored during a ceremony at the State Capitol on March 10 along with 79 other honorees from throughout the state.

Montgomery has served as the executive director of Friends-CARE, formerly the Sacramento-Yolo chapter of Friends Outside, since 1986. The sole staff member behind the nonprofit, Montgomery provides much-needed assistance to the families and children of prison inmates in Sacramento and Yolo Counties.  Montgomery has also served her community in a number of other capacities, working as a Police Chaplain for West Sacramento Police Department, a Yolo County Juvenile Commissioner, and a member of the Legal Services of Northern California's Board of Directors.
   
“Dorothy Montgomery has helped thousands of families navigate the intimidating and often confusing criminal justice system,” said Wolk. “She helps them fill out forms and understand their visitation rights. She checks in on their children, counsels them and works to keep these at-risk youths out of the criminal justice system.  She is there for them in their time of crisis. I am proud to name Dorothy as this district’s woman of the year.”

Friends CARE functions on a shoe-string budget provided by annual fundraising events, local church and individual donations, and a contract with the Yolo County Detention Center. The group also relies on the community for volunteers. Montgomery works closely with the group’s volunteer board of directors—made up of law enforcement and correctional officers, public defenders, district attorneys, and judges--who give their time to work with inmates’ families.

Without Arthur Scotland, the Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Montgomery says there would be no Friends CARE Harvest Festival, an annual event where the children of inmates get to know local judges, some of whom have played roles in the incarceration of the their loved ones.  They eat, talk, and decorate pumpkins. It’s a chance, Montgomery says, to help children “see these judges as humans, and not just a black robe.”