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.
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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05/09/2011
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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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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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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02/11/2011

ACLU Joins Republicans and Democrats to Streamline Maryland’s Bloated Prison System

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 6:21pm

The ACLU has joined forces with a bipartisan group of legislators and advocates to support a bill that would make great strides toward easing the strain of Maryland’s overpopulated prison system. The bill (S.B. 801), introduced by Republican Michael Hough, would create a pilot program to streamline the state’s parole system with a “graduated sanctions program.” It’s a mouthful, but the concept is ultimately about equipping parole officers with options.

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02/10/2011

Ohio Governor Reconsiders Jailing Mother Who Sent Her Kids to the Wrong School

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 3:08pm
Two weeks ago, we wrote about the egregious case of Kelley Williams-Bolar – the African-American single mother in Ohio who was found guilty of two third-degree felonies for sending her kids to the wrong school. She was sentenced to five years in prison for each count, which the Judge suspended to ten days of jail time, probation and community service. Still, even a suspended sentence comes with the label of felon, and this label strips her of the ability to obtain a teaching license in Ohio. She was just a few credit hours short of earning her degree.
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01/28/2011
Debtors Prisons

Sending Your Kid to the Wrong School Could Land You Five Years Behind Bars

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 5:34pm

Last Tuesday, something happened in Ohio that should shock the conscience of every American. After a seven-day jury trial, Kelley Williams-Bolar was found guilty of two third-degree felonies — with a sentence of five years in prison each. Williams-Bolar must have done something pretty heinous, right?

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01/21/2011

Harry's Law's Primetime Shout-Out for Criminal Law Reform

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 5:06pm

While flipping channels on Monday night, we were pleased to stumble across NBC's new show, Harry's Law. The pilot episode features a bored Harriet "Harry" Korn (played by Kathy Bates), who opens her own criminal defense firm after she's fired from her mind-numbing job in patent law. While the opening few minutes are a bit absurd (Harry's first client is a third-time drug offender who literally lands on her after jumping off a building), the show's pilot brings to light the serious problem of overincarceration in our country.

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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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