|
|
Home :
Racial Justice
Locking Up Our Children: ACLU Report on Unjust Detention of Youth in Massachusetts (5/12/2008)
A widespread practice in Massachusetts of locking up youth
accused of minor offenses and who pose little or no danger to their communities
is unfair, threatens public safety and wastes public money, according to a
report released in May 2008 by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of
Massachusetts. The report documents the
use of detention by state judges as a rehabilitative tool to frighten youth
never convicted of wrongdoing. The report also addresses the woeful lack of
placement availability in the state's child welfare and mental health systems
that leave detention as the only viable option for youth who cannot safely be
returned to their homes. Locking Up Our Children is a follow-up report to a 2003 report by the ACLU, which documented the disproportionate representation of youth of color in Massachusett's juvenile justice system.
Report: Turning a Blind Eye to Racial Discrimination in America
The government report failed to level with the international community about the U.S.'s human rights record when it comes to racial injustice. The ACLU's report details police brutality and racial profiling, voter disfranchisement and skyrocketing rates of incarceration, and wide, corrosive effects of racial discrimination.
> Report: Race & Ethnicity in America
> 12/10/2007: New ACLU Report Details Pervasive Racial Discrimination in America
> 6/13/2007: ACLU Calls State Department Report a "Complete Whitewash"
Report: Persistent Racial Disparities in Federal Death Penalty (6/25/2007)
Coauthored by the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project and Racial Justice Program, this report details the persistent racial disparities in federal death penalty sentencing. Mounting evidence suggests that race continues to play a role in who lives or dies in the federal judicial system.
> Read the Report
Broken Promises: Two Years After Katrina (8/10/2006)
Two years ago, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, devastating the homes and lives of millions of people. The ACLU has been inundated with reports of racial injustice and human rights violations in Louisiana and Mississippi, both during and since Katrina. Broken Promises, a comprehensive report from the ACLU, documents the terrible conditions and dangerous lack of planning at the Orleans Parish Prison, and details other increases in police abuse, racial profiling, housing discrimination, along with other civil liberties violations and the ACLU's continuing response.
Read the report and learn more>>
NYCLU and ACLU Report Calls for End to Over-Policing in New York City Schools (3/18/2007)
Criminalizing the Classroom: The Over-Policing of New York City Schools examines the origins and the consequences of the city's aggressive policing operation in schools. It provides analyses of the results of a broad student survey and profiles of individual students whose experiences illuminate the problems with policing in schools.
> Press Release
> Report
ACLU Fights to End Racial Inequity and Harshness in Cocaine Sentencing (10/26/2006)
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 established mandatory minimum sentencing policies that subject people who are low-level cocaine users to the same or harsher sentences as major dealers. The Act also established a 1-to-100 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, making the minimum sentence for 500 grams of powder cocaine - a more expensive drug primarily used by affluent whites - the same as that for just 5 grams of crack - a drug whose primary users are low-income people, many of whom are African American.
This discrepancy remains although there is no medical basis for the difference, and despite repeated recommendations by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to Congress to reconsider the penalties. The ACLU is working to educate the public about these discrepancies and to change these racist and draconian drug policies. Read more at the website of the Drug Law Reform Project >>
A Blueprint for Meeting the Needs of Texas Girls in Custody
Drawing on intensive on-site research, this report describes the conditions of confinement experienced by girls in the custody of the Texas Youth Commission (TYC). In TYC's massive juvenile prisons, a harsh regime of control and punishment not only fails to rehabilitate girls, but exacerbates past trauma and inflicts additional damage on confined children.
Learn More >>
A Bond Forged in Struggle: The ACLU's Historic Alliance with African-Americans in the Quest for Racial Justice
The report recounts the ACLU's ongoing efforts seeking racial equality in America. The ACLU’s decades-long racial justice docket has included victories in many important areas, from discrimination in housing, education and access to public services, to racial profiling and prisoners’ rights. Significant progress has been made, to be sure. But after Katrina’srains subsided, no one could deny that there was still much left to be done.
> Report: A Bond Forged in Struggle: The ACLU's Historic Alliance with African-Americans in the Quest for Racial Justice |
Disproportionate Minority Confinement in Massachusetts (6/2/2003)
As of 2003, although approximately seven out of 10 children confined to Massachusetts' state facilities were youth of color, the state had never collected the data necessary to determine why this was the case. Of the $35 million the state received in from 1998-2003 for youth-related programs, less than .01% was allocated to programs specifically designed to minimize racial disparities. The ACLU documented these shortcomings and disparities in a report entitled Disproportionate Minority Confinement in Massachusetts: Failures in Assessing and Addressing Overrepresentation of Minorities in the Massachusetts' Juvenile Justice System. Since the release of this report, the ACLU has engaged in numerous forums and dialogues with government officials, law enforcement officials, community members, academics and others to address the problem of disproportionate minority contact and its impact on Massachusetts' communities of color.
|
Racial Justice
:
Press Releases
|
ACLU and Civil Rights Groups Find "Cause For Alarm" in Rhode Island Governor's Civil Rights Record (08/12/2003)
PROVIDENCE, RI -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and more than 20 civil rights and community organizations joined today in the release of a report sharply critical of Governor Donald Carcieri's civil rights record during his first six months in office.
New State Study Confirms Rampant Racial Profiling in Rhode Island; ACLU, Community Groups Call for "Concrete Action" (07/01/2003)
PROVIDENCE, RI- Responding to a report released today by the state's attorney general confirming that police continue to stop drivers based on their skin color, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and a coalition of civil rights groups called for concrete action to address the now thoroughly documented problem of racial profiling in the state.
ACLU Lauds Landmark Supreme Court Decisions Upholding University's Affirmative Action Policies (06/23/2003)
NEW YORK--The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded the Supreme Court's decisions today upholding the principle that public universities may continue to use affirmative action to ensure a diverse student body.
ACLU Says New Justice Department Racial Profiling Policy Lacks Enforcement Tool, Suffers From Huge National Security Loophole (06/17/2003)
WASHINGTON - Calling new racial profiling guidelines released today by the Justice Department little more than rhetorical smoke and mirrors, the American Civil Liberties Union said that it remains critical of Attorney General John Ashcroft for not taking comprehensive and unqualified steps to follow through on his long-standing promise to end profiling in the United States.
ACLU Welcomes Bond Hearing for Tulia 13, Says Reform Still Needed (06/16/2003)
WASHINGTON -- Saying that 13 wrongly convicted individuals swept up in the racially charged Tulia drug scandal are one step closer to vindication, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas both welcomed the release of the men and women at a special bond hearing in Texas and applauded a statement released this afternoon by several prominent Members of Congress expressing solidarity with the Tulia defendants.
Elks Club with History of Discrimination is No Place for a County-Sponsored Banquet, Says ACLU of Maryland and NAACP (05/19/2003)
BALTIMORE-Citing a local Elks Club's century-long record of discrimination against African Americans, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People today urged the Anne Arundel County Fire Department not to hold a county-sponsored banquet at the facility this Thursday.
ACLU of Ohio and Community Leaders Name Members to Key Boards Set Up Through Landmark Settlement with Police (05/01/2003)
CINCINNATI -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and community leaders here today announced the names of individuals who will serve on a Community Advisory Board and a Community Police Partnering Center Board that were formed through the settlement of a landmark racial profiling lawsuit.
ACLU of West Virginia Marks One Year Anniversary of Racial Profiling Incident by Filing Lawsuit Against Charleston Police (04/30/2003)
CHARLESTON, WV -- The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia today filed a lawsuit against city and law enforcement officials here charging that three African American college students were racially profiled last year as they drove home from a leadership development program.
Rhode Island Supreme Court Orders City to Pay Costs in Police Misconduct Open Records Case (04/21/2003)
PROVIDENCE, RI -- In the near-final chapter of a long-running "open records" lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the police department here, the State Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that city cannot charge a community group for the costs of providing copies of internal police misconduct reports.
ACLU Files Racial Profiling Lawsuit Against Transportation Security Administration (04/14/2003)
PHILADELPHIA - The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a federal lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for civil rights violations stemming from the wrongful arrest of a Florida doctor and Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserves who was detained for hours solely on the basis of his skin color and national origin.
ACLU Announces Racial Justice Fellowship Program Named for Ira Glasser, Longtime Executive Director (04/08/2003)
NEW YORK- Responding to the social and economic inequalities that persist around the nation in communities of color, the American Civil Liberties Union today announced the launch of the Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellows Program to further develop, strengthen and increase programmatic work on racial justice issues.
|
|
Read the Report >>
