Dolores Canales, Director of Community Outreach for The Bail Project. Previously a Soros Justice Fellow, Dolores is the co-founder of California Families Against (abolish) Solitary Confinement (CFASC) and worked as a youth coordinator for the Orangewood Children’s Foundation. She serves on the Advisory committee of Social Workers Against Solitary Confinement (SWASC), a board member of National Religious Campaign Against Torture NRCAT and a Steering Committee member for the Unlock the Box campaign. Dolores brings a wealth of leadership experience in organizing with those personally affected by incarceration, drawing from her own experiences as well as having a family member who is incarcerated. She currently serves as a Commissioner on the Probation Oversight Commission, appointed by Board of Supervisor Janice Hahn and is a core member of the California Mandela Campaign.

The Formerly Incarcerated Speaker Series is a biweekly program on Alcatraz Island that lifts up and highlights the voices of people who have spent time inside of jails and prisons. The National Park Service believes in parks as platforms for dialogue, and Alcatraz Island, being one of the only NPS sites that interprets mass incarceration, works directly with people who have been affected in order to give them a platform to showcase their stories.

For more information on the Formerly Incarcerated Speaker Series,or other community outreach initiatives (including ranger-led programs), please contact park ranger Ashley Borrego (ashley_borrego@nps.gov). If you are a community leader working with the formerly incarcerated community and you would like to bring a group to an upcoming program in the series, please email Oliver. If you have any accessibility needs such as ASL translation, please contact goga_accessibility@nps.gov at least 5 days in advance.