As the immigration debate continues across Arizona, most pragmatic people seem to agree on a few undeniable facts: racial profiling is illegal. Stopping a motorist for no reason other than their skin color is wrong. Terrorizing American citizens under the guise of immigration enforcement is intolerable.
This week, a class action lawsuit brought by the victims of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s racial profiling practices will get underway. These proceedings will hopefully change the way Arpaio runs the Sheriff’s Office and prevent future instances of discrimination. Among our goals: helping deputies return to pursuing outstanding felony warrants and child rape cases that have been ignored for years, rather than being forced to detain law-abiding citizens for “traffic violations.”
U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske has his work cut out for him. A revealing recent interview suggests he favors a more treatment-based approach to drug policy than his predecessors, but he has no illusions about the daunting task of de-stigmatizing addiction and aligning America’s drug policies with the extensive evidence that a public health approach will serve our country far better than the failed War on Drugs. It’s great that the national discussion about drug use and addiction is changing course, even among high-powered folks like Kerlikowske, but our laws and practices have many miles to go to catch up with the trends in conversation. Fifty percent of our federal prisoners – and almost 20 percent of state prisoners – are incarcerated for drug offenses. And this isn’t just cracking down on “hard” drugs - Marijuana arrests accounted for more than half of all drug arrests in 2010. All of this has a disproportionate and devastating impact on Black Americans, who are three times more likely to be arrested for a marijuana offense even though whites use marijuana at a higher rate. So the question is: can the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) follow through on Kerlikowske’s newfound enlightenment?
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. And yet, our criminal justice system has failed on every count: public safety, fairness and cost-effectiveness. Across the country, the criminal justice reform conversation is heating up. Each week, we feature our some of the most exciting and relevant news in overincarceration discourse that we’ve spotted from the previous week. Check back weekly for our top picks.
Recently-passed Criminal Justice Reform Legislation in the States
At its meeting in Pittsburgh earlier this month, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted by an overwhelming margin to accept a resolution recognizing that the use of solitary confinement can be a form of torture.
By Patrick DePoy, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:33pm
Recently, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Constitution Subcommittee held a landmark hearing on solitary confinement. The goal of the hearing was to comprehensively examine and reassess the overuse of solitary confinement in federal and state correctional facilities and detention centers. Sen. Durbin (D-Ill.), chair of the subcommittee, noted the hearing was about more than just solitary confinement, instead seeking to answer the question, “What do America’s prisons say about our nation and its values?”
By Amy Fettig, ACLU National Prison Project at 4:30pm
Why are the Feds spending $250 million in taxpayer dollars to build an unnecessary and counter-productive prison for women in rural Aliceville, Alabama?
As the New York Times pointed out recently, most women in federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) custody are incarcerated for non-violent offenses; over half of them have minor children. Many of these women do not need to be incarcerated in order to protect public safety. Locking them up hundreds of miles away from their families, children and communities is exactly the wrong step to take if we want them to re-enter society successfully. Decades of research demonstrates the success of policies that keep prisoners near their homes – and for women especially, concern for their children is most often cited as a prime motivator for successful rehabilitation.
This is a good week in Illinois. Yesterday, Gov. Pat Quinn announced that he would close the “supermax” facility at Tamms Correctional Facility, where prisoners are held in long-term solitary confinement.
By Anthony Graves, who spent years in solitary confinement on Texas’ death row before being proven innocent in 2010. Yesterday he testified about the experience at a Senate subcommittee hearing on solitary confinement. His website is www.anthonybelieves.com.
On November 1, 1994, I heard the gavel fall and the judge announce, “Anthony Graves, I hereby sentence you to death by lethal injection.” The jury had already convicted me of murdering six people and burning down their house down to cover up the crime. I was completely innocent: they had the wrong guy. I was scared of dying for a crime I did not commit, but I believed in my innocence and hoped someone, somewhere would make it right.
By David Shapiro, ACLU National Prison Project at 11:21am
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the world’s largest for-profit prison company, planned to contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to build a new private detention center. Resistance by the local community gained momentum. Then the plan unraveled.
These sentences describe two entirely different stories—stories that unfolded last week in communities 1300 miles apart.
The first-ever (and long-overdue) congressional hearing on solitary confinement convenes tomorrow, June 19, at 10 a.m. before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights. You’ll be able to watch a webcast of the hearing on the Senate website, and follow our live tweeting using #stopsolitary.
Among others, the committee will hear from Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps, who is rethinking the use of solitary in Mississippi correctional facilities; Anthony Graves, who spent years in solitary on Texas’ death row before being exonerated; Dr. Craig Haney, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz who has studied and written about psychological trauma among prisoners held in long-term solitary confinement; and Pat Nolan of the Justice Fellowship/Prison Fellowship Ministries, a leader in the conservative movement for criminal justice reform.
