Blog of Rights
Jesselyn
McCurdy
McCurdy is responsible for defending civil liberties in Congress and in the Executive Branch in the areas of criminal justice. McCurdy was a member of the ACLU WLO staff for five years before accepting a position as a Counsel with the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.  She was the lead House counsel for the historic Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 when it passed Congress.
 
McCurdy is a graduate of Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and received a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from Rutgers University.
06/05/2013
Solitary Confinement

New Report Shines a Light on Solitary Confinement

By Jesselyn McCurdy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:20am

It's estimated that more than 80,000 prisoners are held in solitary confinement or restricted housing across the United States on any given day. According to a new report released last week by the U.S. General Accounting Office, it's about time the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) started evaluating its use of solitary and monitoring its effects on those prisoners.

The GAO finally released its long-awaited report on the use of solitary confinement in the federal prison system. The report, which was requested by several members of Congress, attempts to solve the mystery surrounding how many prisoners in federal prison are subjected to solitary confinement and how BOP monitors individuals while in solitary.

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07/31/2012
Sentencing Reform

Federal Prisons Busting at the Seams: Sentencing Commission Should Prioritize Growing Prison Population

By Jesselyn McCurdy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:54pm

The U.S. Sentencing Commission is in the process of determining the issues that it will prioritize 2013. The commission embarks on this process every year and invites the public to suggest what it thinks the commission should concentrate its efforts on for the upcoming year.

While there is nothing new about the commission prioritizing tasks such as drafting sentencing guidelines for newly enacted legislation, what is new this year is that both the ACLU and the Department of Justice (and likely other organizations) have identified the growing crisis of the federal prison population as a priority that the commission should focus attention on.

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02/25/2013
Overincarceration

Sequestration Puts Spotlight on America’s Dangerously Overcrowded Federal Prisons

By Jesselyn McCurdy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:18pm

Talk about worrying about the symptom instead of the cause: Attorney General Eric Holder recently sent a letter to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, warning of the devastating effect budget cuts will have on the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) if sequestration moves forward. If no deal is reached by March 1, the BOP will face a 5% reduction in staffing levels. His letter paints a scary picture:

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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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08/09/2012
Mandatory Minimum Sentences

One Year After Simmons: ACLU Sends Letter to DOJ to Help Release People Wrongly Languishing in Federal Prisons

By Jesselyn McCurdy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:53pm

Yesterday, USA Today reported on a letter the ACLU sent to top officials at the Department of Justice, urging immediate action to identify and possibly release dozens of wrongfully imprisoned federal inmates.

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10/13/2011
U.S. Sentencing Commission

Mandatory Sentencing Is Not the Answer

By Jesselyn McCurdy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:03am

Hamedah Hasan, a 43-year-old mother and grandmother, continues to languish in prison. She is 18 years into a 27-year prison sentence for a first-time nonviolent crack offense. Though the Nebraska judge who heard her case didn't want to give such a harsh sentence, he said he saw no way to sentence her to a shorter term under the mandatory federal sentencing guidelines at the time.

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02/08/2012
Celebrate Black History

An Opportunity to Leave My Mark in History

By Jesselyn McCurdy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:12pm

This month we commemorate the achievements of African-Americans, celebrate the legacy of those involved in the struggle, and rededicate our commitment to the work.

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11/01/2011
Crack Sentencing

Chance at Freedom: Retroactive Crack Sentence Reductions For Up to 12,000 May Begin Today

By Jesselyn McCurdy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:11pm

Today, Hamedah Hasan can finally apply for her freedom.

Hamedah has been locked up for 18 years serving a prison sentence she never deserved.

When she was 21 years old, she and her two daughters escaped an abusive relationship to live with her cousin. Feeling indebted to this cousin, who was involved in dealing crack cocaine, she agreed to run various errands and transfer money. Though Hamedah never used drugs herself, she was later indicted and convicted for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. Despite a previously clean record, the judge had no choice but to issue a life sentence, due to mandatory minimums for crack cocaine and the mandatory sentencing guidelines then on the books.

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09/30/2011

Joining the Movement: Congress Takes Action to Abolish Federal Death Penalty

By Jesselyn McCurdy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:27pm

It's been more than a week now since the execution of Troy Davis. Protesters may no longer be standing vigil and the story may no longer be making front-page headlines. But one thing is certain: millions of Americans' eyes have been opened to the injustice of the death penalty system in this country — and we aren't going to forget.

Davis was executed last week in Georgia, despite serious concerns that he was wrongly convicted in 1989 of killing of a police officer. His story garnered international media attention. The world watched until the final moments when the U.S. Supreme Court denied his last-minute stay of execution.

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07/21/2011

AG Makes the Right Decision, Eventually

By Jesselyn McCurdy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:00pm

Over the past 40 years, the ACLU and criminal justice advocates around the country have worked tirelessly to overcome our nation’s obsession with the unjust and ineffective “war on drugs.” Although we have experienced disappointments during these years, in recent weeks, we have seen the tide turn in favor of fairer and more just drug policies. First, on June 30, the United States Sentencing Commission voted to apply retroactively the new Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) guidelines to individuals sentenced before the law was enacted. 

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