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.
03/04/2011

States' Brilliant Budget Solution: Sacrifice Public Education to Spend More on Ineffective Prisons

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 5:32pm

California's governor wants to eliminate the entire $30 million the state spends on public libraries, while spending more than $50 million to imprison two dozen bedridden inmates who pose no threat to public safety.

Unfortunately, these types of absurd budget "solutions" are more common than you might think. There's no shortage of debate about how to deal with fiscal crises around the nation; the protests in Wisconsin and other states over budget cuts reflect the passion surrounding this hot topic.

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07/26/2011
Georgia

Mother Jaywalking Faces More Prison Time Than Man Who Ran Over Her Son

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Jon Martin, ACLU at 10:20am

“Tough on crime” rhetoric – especially when it comes to perceived threats against our nation’s children – has been a political focal point in recent years. Local prosecutors and law enforcement agencies are often judged by how many convictions they can score, especially in cases that involve potential harm to a child. This undercurrent in our criminal justice system, instead of promoting public safety, too often serves to compound already tragic events, as was the case recently with a mother and her young child in Georgia.

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05/24/2011
Elderly Prisoners

The High Costs of Going Gray in Louisiana and Nationwide

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 5:26pm

Prisoners across America are getting older, experiencing all the same ailments that afflict those of the same age who aren't behind bars. Extreme sentencing policies and a growing number of life sentences without the possibility of parole have effectively turned many of our correctional facilities into veritable nursing homes — and we're paying for it.

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05/09/2011
Overincarceration

Tribeca Film Festival Highlights International Overincarceration

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 4:30pm

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival came to a close last month, with the festival's coveted Heineken Audience Award going to Give Up Tomorrow — a disturbing documentary detailing a story of an injustice perpetrated against a family in the Philippines.

Spanning more than a decade, Give up Tomorrow details what the Philippine media has called "the trial of the century." In 1997, Paco Larranaga, a 19-year-old student, was arrested for rape and murder. He and six other young men were arrested randomly by police although there was no evidence linking them to the crime. School records and 40 witnesses placed Larranaga in class on the day of the murders. The trial judge refused to allow defendants to offer key evidence, and the police and prosecutors blatantly misconstrued and fabricated evidence. The young men were then convicted and eventually sentenced to death.

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01/13/2011

Sing it, Newt! Gingrich and Allies Promote Criminal Justice Reform

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 4:57pm

It might seem hard to find something the left and right agree on these days, but we're thrilled to see both sides of the political spectrum reaching an important consensus when it comes to our country's correctional system. As a non-partisan organization, the ACLU has always realized that reforming the criminal justice system is not a political issue, but one of fairness, justice and now, economic necessity. We're glad to see others getting that, too.

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05/04/2012
Overincarceration

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.

In Georgia, Gov. Nathan Deal signed a bill this week that takes a smart approach to criminal justice. The new law creates less severe penalties for drug crimes, expands drug courts, and provides alternatives to incarceration for low-level, non-violent offenses. The package is projected to save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over the next five years by reducing the prison population.

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03/09/2012
War on Drugs

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.

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05/12/2011
Overincarceration

ACLU Joins Right on Crime, Prison Ministries, Bipartisan Legislators, and the ABA to Prioritize Criminal Justice Reform

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU at 2:45pm

On Friday, I joined legislators and lawyers from all sides of the political spectrum to help launch the American Bar Association's (ABA) initiative to "Save States Money, Reform Criminal Justice, and Keep the Public Safe." I spoke about the urgent need for smart reforms to our criminal justice system — alongside members of Right on Crime (a conservative group led by Newt Gingrich), district attorneys, chief justices, and Mark Earley (former Republican Virginia Attorney General and CEO of faith-based Prison Fellowship Ministries).

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05/04/2011

A Disturbing New Trend: Jailing Poor Black Mothers for Trying to Educate Their Children

By Courtney Bowie, Racial Justice Program & Inimai Chettiar, ACLU at 6:24pm

In a case very similar to one in Akron, Ohio, we wrote about a few months ago, a Connecticut homeless woman is currently facing felony charges for enrolling her 5-year-old son in a Norwalk elementary school by using her babysitter's address.

According to the media, the state considers this to be first-degree larceny because Tanya McDowell "stole" nearly $15,000 in education for her son, and she faces a possible 20-year prison sentence for a nonviolent crime. The district claims not to have known that she was homeless. In fact, as a homeless student, the woman's son would have been eligible to attend school and to be transported to it, under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.

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04/01/2011
Overincarceration

Mississippi's Vicious Cycle of Overincarceration

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 4:05pm

This week, on the steps of the capitol in Jackson, ACLU of Mississippi Executive Director Nsombi Lambright unveiled a new report and urged lawmakers to take action to reform Mississippi's harsh and ineffective criminal justice system.

Mississippi has some of the most draconian sentencing laws in the nation. Sentences under these laws have resulted in overcrowded prisons, the overincarceration of African-Americans, and a ballooning financial strain on the state, making Mississippi the second-largest incarcerator in the nation. The state is fast on the heels of Louisiana, the current leader in this dismal race. This is quite a feat, considering the U.S. is the largest incarcerator in the world — higher than Russia, Cuba, Iran, and yes, even China.

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