Blog of Rights

Amy
Fettig
Amy Fettig serves as Senior Staff Counsel for the ACLU’s National Prison Project (NPP).
 
At NPP, she litigates federal class action prison conditions cases under the Eighth Amendment. Her practice focuses on claims regarding medical and mental health care in prison, solitary confinement, prison rape, and comprehensive reform in juvenile facilities. Ms. Fettig also directs the ACLU’s Stop Solitary campaign seeking to end the practice of long-term isolation in our nation’s prisons, jails and juvenile detention centers through public policy reform, legislation, litigation and public education.
 
Ms. Fettig is a leading member of the national coalition seeking to end the practice of shackling pregnant women prisoners and works with a wide range of ACLU affiliates on both anti-shackling campaigns and their advocacy strategies around women’s health in prison. A national expert on prisoner rights law, she provides technical legal assistance and advice to advocacy groups and lawyers around the country and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where she teaches courses on public interest advocacy.
 
Prior to law school, Ms. Fettig worked with women prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families in New York City. She holds a B.A., with distinction, Carleton College; a Master’s from Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs; and a J.D. from Georgetown University. Ms. Fettig is a member of the New York State Bar (2002) and the Bar for the District of Columbia (2006).

Why Do We Keep Building Needless Prisons?

By Amy Fettig, ACLU National Prison Project at 4:30pm

Why are the Feds spending $250 million in taxpayer dollars to build an unnecessary and counter-productive prison for women in rural Aliceville, Alabama? 

As the New York Times pointed out recently, most women in federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) custody are incarcerated for non-violent offenses; over half of them have minor children. Many of these women do not need to be incarcerated in order to protect public safety. Locking them up hundreds of miles away from their families, children and communities is exactly the wrong step to take if we want them to re-enter society successfully. Decades of research demonstrates the success of policies that keep prisoners near their homes – and for women especially, concern for their children is most often cited as a prime motivator for successful rehabilitation. 

Tamms "Supermax" Prison, with its Inhumane and Ridiculously Expensive Solitary Confinement Practices, is Officially a Thing of the Past!

By Amy Fettig, ACLU National Prison Project at 11:00am

Here’s to starting the New Year right. The notorious Tamms Correctional Center in Illinois, with its practice of housing human beings alone in cells for 22-24 hours per day with little or no human interaction or outside stimulus, officially shut its doors today.

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