Blog of Rights

Inimai
Chettiar

Inimai Chettiar is an Advocacy & Policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she serves as a national legislative counsel working to end mass incarceration in states across the country. She has published extensive scholarship on using economic analysis to advance progressive legal reform. She received a B.A. from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the University of Chicago School of Law.

Georgia Chooses Path Toward Criminal Justice Reform; Oklahoma Misses an Opportunity

By Vanita Gupta, Center for Justice & Inimai Chettiar, ACLU at 1:51pm
This year, both Georgia and Oklahoma took up criminal justice reform, but ended up in two quite different places. Read More

"Tough on Crime" No Longer the American Mantra?

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Alex Stamm, Center for Justice at 4:35pm
Politicians over the last quarter-century have held strong to the conventional wisdom that being "tough on crime" will win elections and appease the ... Read More

Supreme Court Says Jails Can Strip Search You – Even for Traffic Violations

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU at 2:18pm
Yesterday a divided Supreme Court ruled in Florence v. Burlington that any person arrested can be subject to a strip search — even for a minor offense or ... Read More

Is Ending Mass Incarceration a Christian Imperative?

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU at 11:02am
Christians such as Pat Robertson believe it is a moral imperative to address mass incarceration, especially in the face of stark racial disparities. Read More

Why Mass Incarceration Really is the New Jim Crow

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU at 3:41pm
Black Americans are twice as likely to be arrested during a traffic stop and nearly four times as likely to experience the threat or use of force. Read More

Downsizing Incarceration is Good for Fairness, Safety, and our Wallets

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU at 11:25am
It’s no secret that the United States is the largest incarcerator in the world. It’s also no secret that our government selectively enforces criminal ... Read More

The Legacy of Derrick Bell

By Courtney Bowie, Racial Justice Program & Inimai Chettiar, ACLU at 4:50pm
The following is an excerpt from a longer article appearing on ACSblog: Professor Derrick Bell, who passed away on Wednesday, was a racial justice pioneer and ... Read More

It's Not Just Prosecutorial Leverage That's Eroding our Justice System

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU at 6:17pm
Yesterday's New York Times article highlighting the coercive practice of plea bargaining is not news to advocates of criminal justice reform. Read More

Ohio Mother Granted Clemency after Being Prosecuted for Sending Her Child to the Wrong School

By Geoff Schotter, ACLU & Inimai Chettiar, ACLU at 4:55pm
In January, we wrote about the particularly disturbing case of Kelley Williams-Bolar, an African-American single mother convicted of two felonies and facing prison ... Read More

A Way Toward Balancing Government Budgets While Promoting Justice: Break Our Addiction to Incarceration

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Vanita Gupta, Center for Justice at 12:44pm
A new ACLU report shows how several states have enacted cost-effective laws cutting their unnecessary overreliance and massive spending on prisons while continuing to ... Read More
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