"That money would have helped me out with a lot of things," said Vaesau, who at age 16 was convicted as an adult of attempted murder but eventually released after being resentenced under new laws. "I'm suing because I know there's a lot of people who have been incarcerated for a long time, and right after they were done with us, they threw us out like garbage."
"We hope to find out in the lawsuit exactly how many people are affected and exactly how much money has been withheld from individuals that the Legislature intended to be used for their reentry support," Salahi said.
"Some of the challenges people might face are as simple as how do I make a phone call? How do I figure out where I'm going to stay tonight?" said Salah.
The amount of gate money given to each individual has not changed since then-Gov. Ronald Reagan signed the law in the 1970s. In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have increased it to an inflation-adjusted $1,300.
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