Blog of Rights
Rachel
Myers

Rachel Myers is a senior communications strategist at the ACLU focusing on criminal justice issues. She worked previously at the ACLU of Maine and the Portland (ME) Education Partnership, where she trained teachers, students and community organizations to use service learning in the public schools. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

10/11/2011
Florida

Trading Privacy for Benefits

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 12:38pm

The New York Times has this story about the dramatic increase in the number of states considering legislation that would mandate drug testing for poor people who rely on public assistance. The ACLU of Florida filed a lawsuit in September challenging Florida’s law — one of the most egregious we’ve seen — requiring applicants for cash assistance to submit to a drug test, at their own cost, in order to qualify for benefits. As we’ve said before, laws like Florida’s are costly, ineffective and unconstitutional.

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10/05/2011

Death By Missed Deadline

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 11:29am

Yesterday the Supreme Court heard the appeal of Cory Maples, a man facing death in Alabama because his lawyers were late filing the appeal of his conviction in state court. This excellent New York Times editorial describes how the sad emphasis on form over substance in this case should leave no doubt that the death penalty must be abolished.

The ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, describing the many deficiencies plaguing the Alabama death penalty system. It is now up to the Supreme Court to decide whether Maples should be executed without any federal court review because of a missed filing deadline that was not his fault.

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09/29/2011
Wal-Mart

Medical Marijuana: A Cure, Not a Crime

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 10:40am

Joseph Casias has battled sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor for more than a decade. His condition has required extensive treatment and chemotherapy, interferes with his ability to speak, and is a source of severe and daily pain. The pain relief medicine prescribed by Joseph's oncologist helped a little, but he continued to experience constant pain as well as nausea, a side effect of the medication.

Luckily, Joseph lives in Michigan, where a voter-enacted statute allows the use of marijuana to treat certain severe medical conditions like his. Joseph's oncologist recommended that he try marijuana in accordance with the state law; he did, and immediately found it very helpful to treat his condition.

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09/09/2011
Georgia

Troy Davis Execution Set — Take Action Today!

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 9:34am

The State of Georgia plans to execute Troy Davis at midnight on September 21, even though he is very likely innocent.

Davis has been scheduled for execution three times before, and three times his execution has been stayed amid doubts and new evidence against other suspects. Davis was sentenced on the basis of witness testimony, but seven of nine original witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony.

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09/06/2011
Arizona

Charging for Prison Visits is Bad Business

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 6:53pm

We thought we’d heard it all when it came to the crazy ways corrections departments try to save money. That is, until we learned today that the Arizona Department of Corrections is charging people money to visit their loved ones in prison.

According to the New York Times:

New legislation allows the department to impose a $25 fee on adults who wish to visit inmates at any of the 15 prison complexes that house state prisoners. The one-time “background check fee” for visitors, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, has angered prisoner advocacy groups and family members of inmates, who in many cases already shoulder the expense of traveling long distances to the remote areas where many prisons are located.

An Arizona official confirmed that these “background check fees” will not actually pay for background checks, but are instead intended to make up part of the state deficit.

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08/24/2011
Solitary Confinement

California Can Reform Solitary Confinement

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 11:26am

California's overuse of solitary confinement is inhumane, costly and jeopardizes public safety by ignoring the fact that normal human contact is essential for ensuring successful re-entry and reducing recidivism rates.

Now, following a weeks-long hunger strike by inmates that brought California's use of solitary into the national spotlight, the California legislature is considering making some positive policy changes.

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08/22/2011
Pelican Bay State Prison

"Solitary Confinement Should be a Last Resort"

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 12:39pm

That is the title of this excellent editorial in the Washington Post, which takes on the issue of solitary confinement recently brought into the national spotlight by the hunger striking prisoners in California's Pelican Bay State Prison and other facilities across the state.

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08/15/2011
Overincarceration

Safety in Numbers?

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 3:26pm

In the last decade, New York drastically reduced its prison population and at the same time experienced a huge drop in crime. Indiana, on the other hand, drastically increased its prison population — and consequently the burden to taxpayers — while seeing a much smaller drop in crime than the national average.

A new infographic out from the ACLU today shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, increasing a state’s prison population isn’t necessarily a good way to make that state safer.

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08/08/2011

Ohio and the Death Penalty

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 5:18pm

Check out this great editorial the New York Times ran over the weekend, highlighting the longstanding problems with Ohio’s death penalty and calling for an end the practice throughout the country:

Governor Kasich should instead listen to Ohio’s senior Supreme Court justice, Paul Pfeifer, who helped write the state’s death-penalty law as a legislator and has called on Ohio to abolish what he calls the “death lottery.” It is time for every state with the penalty on the books to outlaw this barbaric punishment.

We've blogged about problems with the death penalty in Ohio before.

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07/07/2011
State Department

Execution in Texas, Despite So Much

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 8:25pm

Today, Texas executed Humberto Leal Garcia, a Mexican national who was tried, convicted and sentenced to die in the state of Texas without ever being given access to the Mexican consulate. Most agree his sentence would have been different if he had been given that access. It is certain that his lawyer would have been different – Mexico pays for experienced lawyers to defend against death penalty cases for its citizens.

Texas violated Leal’s rights under Vienna Convention on Consular Relations when it neglected to inform him of his right to consult the Mexican consulate upon his arrest. The Texas authorities don’t even deny that – they simply say, in legalese, “too bad.” Because of their ability to rely on the hypertechnical timing requirements of state and federal law, Texas prosecutors can afford to ignore a legitimate legal claim. Not deny the claim, mind you – just ignore it.

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