Blog of Rights
10/05/2012
L.A. County Jail

Baca's Strike Force

By Peter J. Eliasberg, ACLU of Southern California at 3:28pm

The announcement this week by Sheriff Lee Baca that he agrees with and intends to implement all 63 recommendations laid out in a new report by the Citizens' Commission on Jail Violence is welcome news. At a press conference Wednesday, Baca said of the recommendations, “I couldn’t have written them better myself,” continuing that by implementing them, “we will be a stronger and safer jail.”

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10/03/2012
Solitary Confinement

Life in a Box: Inhumane and Unsafe Extreme Isolation in New York’s Prisons

By Michael Cummings, New York Civil Liberties Union at 12:54pm

In New York’s prisons, people caught with too many postage stamps in their cells can land a stint in extreme isolation – the harshest possible punishment in the state prison system.

Extreme isolation – locking one or two people in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day under conditions commonly understood as solitary confinement – should never be a disciplinary tool of first resort. In fact, the cruel and ineffective practice should be eliminated all together.

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09/21/2012
Breaking the Addiction to Incarceration

Breaking the Addiction to Incarceration: Weekly Highlights

By Alex Stamm, ACLU Center for Justice at 12:00pm

 Today, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. With over 2.3 million men and women living behind bars, our imprisonment rate is the highest it’s ever been in U.S. history.

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09/20/2012
HIV/AIDS Discrimination in Prisons

"Y'all Will Not Walk My Halls and Spread HIV."

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 10:09am

For 25 years, the ACLU has been a forceful advocate to end discrimination against prisoners living with HIV. We've worked to end their segregation from the rest of the prison population and ensure they are afforded access to vital services and programs.

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09/14/2012
Breaking the Addiction to Incarceration

Breaking the Addiction to Incarceration: Weekly Highlights

By Alex Stamm, ACLU Center for Justice at 2:27pm

Today, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. With over 2.3 million men and women living behind bars, our imprisonment rate is the highest it’s ever been in U.S. history.

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09/12/2012
L.A. County Jail

A Sheriff with his Head in the Sand

By Margaret Winter, National Prison Project & Peter J. Eliasberg, ACLU of Southern California at 9:30am

Gang-like cliques of sheriff's deputies operating with impunity inside L.A. County jails. Department top brass encouraging a culture of violence and brutality against inmates. And a sheriff with his head in the sand.

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09/06/2012
Shackling Pregnant Inmates

This Is the Year California Will Stop Shackling Pregnant Women

By Alicia M. Walters, ACLU of Northern California at 3:16pm

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is a popular definition of insanity. Those of us across the country trying repeatedly to pass bills that would prohibit the shackling of pregnant women in jails and prisons are hardly insane. Dedicated? Yes. Stubborn? Possibly. Unwilling to accept women suffering? Absolutely.

This year marks the third attempt to get a signature on a bipartisan, unanimously supported bill in California (AB 2530) that would ban the practice of putting incarcerated pregnant women in dangerous shackles. Similar bills have passed two previous legislative sessions with overwhelming support from both political parties, only to be vetoed. Opposition from the powerful law enforcement lobby surely played a role in these vetoes. But we have persevered, and this year we’ve been successful in keeping law enforcement neutral. While we’re happy with this progress, we still need the Governor to sign the bill.

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09/06/2012
S.B. 1070

SB 1070: The Fight Continues

By Alessandra Soler, ACLU of Arizona at 2:41pm

For 19-year-old Hugo Carrillo Escobedo, SB1070 is about more than just “showing your papers.”  After “squealing” his tires, Hugo wound up in immigration detention for eight hours. Hugo’s story is particularly compelling because he was initially just given a citation for the traffic violation and immediately released.  But the police officer later showed up at his house, saying: “Do you know about SB1070? If I don’t report you, I could lose my job.” 

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09/05/2012
Overincarceration

It's Time to Discuss Criminal Justice Reform

By Vanita Gupta, Center for Justice & Ezekiel Edwards, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 2:51pm

Presidential election season is prime time for predictions. One sure bet is this: neither candidate is likely to make criminal justice a stump issue.

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09/04/2012
Prison Spending

Trim Prison Spending, Reinvest in California’s Future with ACLU’s New Web Challenge

By Caitlin O'Neill, Criminal Justice and Drug Policy Associate, ACLU of Northern California at 2:52pm

Are there policy choices California’s legislators could make that would result in less incarceration spending and more education spending?

There absolutely are.  And we’re inviting you to make them.

Think Outside the Box is a new web challenge created by the ACLU of California that allows people to get a real-time sense of how the bottom line in California, home of one of the nation’s most overcrowded prison systems, would fare if prisons and jails were placed at the center of the budgetary chopping block.

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