Blog of Rights
Dan
Zeidman

Dan Zeidman is a Lobbyist Assistant focusing on criminal justice reform for the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. Before coming to the ACLU, Dan worked as a Legislative Assistant for the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He graduated from Williams College in 2009 with a BA in Political Science and a concentration in Leadership Studies.

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08/01/2012
Overincarceration

Senate Hearing Explores the Exorbitant Costs of Incarceration

By Dan Zeidman, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:51pm

Over the last 30 years, the population of the federal prison system has increased exponentially – nearly 800 percent – largely due to the overrepresentation of those convicted of drug offenses, many of whom are low-level and non-violent. Today, a record 218,000 people are confined within Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) operated facilities or in privately managed or community-based institutions and jails.

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03/15/2012
Prosecutorial Misconduct

Brady Reform: New Legislation Is a Win for Justice

By Jesselyn McCurdy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Dan Zeidman, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:47pm

In the 1963 Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a defendant’s fundamental right to any and all favorable information that might prove he or she was innocent of a crime. From that case came the “Brady Rule” –the constitutional obligation for the prosecution to disclose any material evidence favorable to the accused.

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02/14/2012
Sentencing Disparity

Promising Beginnings: States Provide a Model for Federal Criminal Justice Reform

By Dan Zeidman, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:00pm

In his 2007 State of the State address, Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) aptly explained, “I believe we can take an approach to crime that is both tough and smart…[T]here are thousands of non-violent offenders in the system whose future we cannot ignore. Let’s focus more resources on rehabilitating those offenders so we can ultimately spend less money locking them up again.”

Gov. Perry is just one voice in the chorus of policymakers, from both sides of the political aisle, calling for serious criminal justice reform that promotes public safety, reduces unsustainable prison populations and saves scarce taxpayer dollars. Elected officials like Gov. Perry are beginning to put their money where their mouths are by passing reform legislation to address overincarceration.

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04/25/2012
Employment Discrimination

EEOC: Help Stop Discriminatory Barriers to Employment

By Dan Zeidman, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:49pm

Ms. W, a Native American woman in Washington State, was convicted in 2008 for possession of marijuana. After applying for a job at a discount retail store and receiving a conditional offer of employment, Ms. W received a call from the manager telling her that a background check company had given her a failing evaluation, without providing the employer with any further information.

As a result of this evaluation, the employer rescinded the conditional offer of employment. When Ms. W investigated, she found out that her background check erroneously reflected a more serious offense. Although the background check company subsequently corrected Ms. W's report, the damage had been done.

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10/07/2011
End Racial Profiling Act

One Step Closer to Ending Racial Profiling

By Dan Zeidman, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:28am

Whether it be the Arab-American Secret Service agent barred from a commercial flight en route to join the security detail at President George W. Bush's Crawford ranch, the African American high school student in Seattle singled out and degraded in front of his friends, or the Latino family in Chicago awoken at the crack of dawn by police and building inspectors searching for evidence of overcrowding — racial profiling touches us all.

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06/29/2011
War on Drugs

A Call for Fairness

By Dan Zeidman, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:03pm

June 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's declaration of a "war on drugs" — a war that has cost roughly a trillion dollars, has produced little to no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs in the United States, and has contributed to making America the world's largest incarcerator. Throughout the month, check back daily for posts about the drug war, its victims and what needs to be done to restore fairness and create effective policy.

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03/31/2011

ACLU Urges U.S. Sentencing Commission to Restore Basic Fairness to Criminal Justice System

By Dan Zeidman, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:00am

On March 21, the ACLU submitted recommendations to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in response to the commission's request for public comments on a variety of proposed amendments to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. In the comments, the ACLU urges the commission to:

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05/21/2012
Overincarceration

Seeing Is Believing: Bipartisan Criminal Justice Reform Is Possible

By Jennifer Bellamy, Washington Legislative Office & Dan Zeidman, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 6:38pm

In 2009, Terry Collins, then Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, explained, “We are at a critical and urgent stage. If current trends continue, our research indicates the population will reach nearly 60,000 inmates by 2018. I can tell you today, just to build beds to get us to 100 percent  capacity would cost us roughly $1 billion dollars, and that does not include the operational funding. Common sense sentencing reform says we must change and understand that some people can be punished and held accountable for their actions without being placed behind prison fences.”

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11/17/2011
Sentencing Disparity

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer Gets It (Half) Right

By Dan Zeidman, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:57pm

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer has a lot to say on our country’s criminal system – some good, some bad.

That was clear from a speech he made Tuesday to the American Lawyer/National Law Journal Summit that discussed the serious challenges facing sentencing and corrections policy in the United States. In his remarks, Breuer raised concerns about how we help formerly incarcerated individuals become productive members of society, as well as what he understands to be disparities in how people are sentenced in the federal system.

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06/14/2011

It's Time for Congress to Get Smart on Crime

By Dan Zeidman, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 6:34pm

Our investment in the criminal justice system is not paying dividends. Exploding prison populations — driven by America's "tough on crime" policies — have caused state spending on corrections to quadruple over the past 20 years and have put federal corrections spending at approximately $6 billion — an increase of 1,700 percent since 1980. Despite our massive and expensive prison population, experts estimate that increases in incarceration rates have "only a modest, and diminishing, impact on crime." Additionally, recent data reveals that nearly half of individuals released from prison will be re-incarcerated within three years of their release. Put simply, we are spending enormous sums of money unwisely and are not seeing a proportional increase in public safety.

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