By Dan Zeidman, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:51pm
Over the last 30 years, the population of the federal prison system has increased exponentially – nearly 800 percent – largely due to the overrepresentation of those convicted of drug offenses, many of whom are low-level and non-violent. Today, a record 218,000 people are confined within Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) operated facilities or in privately managed or community-based institutions and jails.
Imagine that you are a lawful resident married to a U.S. citizen serviceman who is deployed overseas, and you are looking for a job to help support your family. You find one, but unbeknownst to you, your employer, aiming to expedite the hiring process, checks the "citizen" box on the application, a box that you correctly left blank. After audit, you are accused of making a false statement of citizenship status, which could provide grounds for mandatory deportation. Imagine that the allegation is never substantiated and you are never given the opportunity to explain the circumstances, but you are banished from the U.S. and from your family. Well – you don't have to imagine all this since it's a true account shared by Margaret D. Stock, Lt. Col. (Ret.) and counsel at Lane Powell, at a congressional briefing organized last month by the ACLU. Her client was forced to return to her country of origin and separated from her husband while he put his life on the line for the freedoms we enjoy.
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?”
