|
|
Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, we work to ensure that conditions of confinement are constitutional and consistent with health, safety, and human dignity. Our goals include substantially reducing the existing incarcerated population, especially among people of color, the mentally ill, and other vulnerable populations; ending cruel, inhuman, and degrading conditions of confinement; increasing public accountability and transparency of jails, prisons, and other places of detention; and expanding prisoners’ freedom of religion, expression, and association.
Achieving these goals will result in a criminal justice system that respects individual rights and increases public safety for everyone, at greatly reduced fiscal cost.
Cases
See all ACLU Prisoners’ Rights Cases.
Features
Stop Solitary - The Dangerous Overuse of Solitary Confinement in the United States (2011 resource): Over the last two decades corrections systems have increasingly relied on solitary confinement as a prison management tool – even building entire institutions called “supermax prisons” where prisoners are held in conditions of extreme isolation, sometimes for years or decades. But solitary confinement jeopardizes our public safety, is fundamentally inhumane and wastes taxpayer dollars. We must insist on humane and more cost-effective methods of punishment and prison management.
Reports
Cruel and Usual Punishment — How a Savage Gang of Deputies Controls L.A. County Jails (2011 report): This report details a pattern of severe and pervasive abuse of inmates at the hands of deputies and an ongoing climate of violence that has been allowed to exist for years under Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who the report says has covered up and ignored the claims of savagery.
Slamming the Courthouse Doors: Denial of Access to Justice and Remedy in America (2010 report): Actions of the executive, federal legislative, and judicial branches of the United States have seriously restricted access to justice for victims of civil liberties and human rights violations, and have limited the availability of effective (or, in some cases, any) remedies for these violations. Weakened judicial oversight and recent attempts to limit access to justice by attacking plaintiffs’ and defendants’ standing, discovery rights and the courts’ jurisdiction, are denying victims of human rights violations their day in court and protecting responsible officials and corporations from litigation.
Broken Promises – 2 Years After Katrina (2007 report): A comprehensive report documenting the terrible conditions and dangerous lack of planning at the Orleans Parish Prison, increases in police abuse, racial profiling, housing discrimination and other civil liberties violations, and the ACLU's continuing response.
Abandoned & Abused (2006 report): A comprehensive picture of what the men, women, and children at Orleans Parish Prison endured before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina.
Out of Step with the World: An Analysis of Felony Disfranchisement in the U.S. and Other Democracies (2006 PDF): The United States bars from the vote nearly 5.3 million American citizens on the grounds that they committed a crime, although most committed nonviolent offenses and only a quarter are in prison or jail, with three-quarters either on probation or parole or having completed sentences.
Multimedia & Infographics
Video: Support Parole for the Elderly (2011 video): States spend huge amounts putting people in prison who simply don't need to be there. A lot of this money is spent keeping elderly people on lockdown. We should not be using taxpayer dollars to keep elderly or ailing individuals in prison when they are not dangerous to our communities. These elderly individuals should at least be given the right to present their case in a hearing before a parole board to determine whether they should be released to their families to care for them.
Other Resources
Know Your Rights: Environmental Hazards and Toxic Materials (2011 resource): Exposing prisoners to dangerous conditions or toxic substances may violate the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Prison officials violate the Eighth Amendment if, with deliberate indifference, they expose a prisoner to a condition that poses an unreasonable risk of serious damage to that prisoner’s future health.
Know Your Rights: The Prison Litigation Reform Act (2011 resource): The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) makes it harder for prisoners to file lawsuits in federal court. This fact sheet outlines the information you need to know before filing a lawsuit
Know Your Rights: Privileged and Non-Privileged Mail (2011 resource): The Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment of the United States Constitution entitles prisoners to receive and send mail, subject only to the institution's right to censor letters or withhold delivery if necessary to protect institutional security, and if accompanied by appropriate procedural safeguards.
Know Your Rights: Medical, Dental and Mental Health Care (2011 resource): Prison officials are obligated under the Eighth Amendment to provide prisoners with adequate medical care. This principle applies regardless of whether the medical care is provided by governmental employees or by private medical staff under contract with the government.
Know Your Rights: Freedom of Religion (2011 resource): Generally, beliefs that are "sincerely held" and "religious" are protected by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Most Popular
Georgia Prison Strike an Outgrowth of Nation's Addiction to Incarceration (2011 blog post)
Michigan’s Crumbling Public Defense System Continues to Lock Up Innocent People (2011 blog post)
L.A. County Jail Still Plagued by Deputies Who Abuse and Retaliate Against Inmates (2010 blog post)
City Council To Vote On Expansion Of Largest Per-Capita Jail In America (2010 press release)
MCSO Implements Muslim Head Scarf Policy in County Jails (2010 press release)
Prison Litigation Reform Act Must be Fixed, Law denies justice to victims (2008 press release)
Inmates With Disabilities Face Discrimination In Los Angeles County Jails (2008 press release)
ACLU of Colorado Challenges Abuse of Prisoners in Garfield County Jail (2006 press release)
Roderick Keith Johnson Speaks Out About Verdict in Prison Rape Case (2005 press release)
Prison Officials' Failure to Contain Hepatitis C Brings Epidemic Outside Prison Walls, MI ACLU Charges (2003 press release)
