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.
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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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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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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