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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.
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Racial Justice
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Press Releases
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ACLU of Illinois Launches Hotline for Muslims & Arab-Americans Unfairly Targeted by Law Enforcement (09/27/2001)
CHICAGO -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois today launched a hotline in response to concerns that Muslims and persons of Arab descent may be unfairly targeted for investigation by law enforcement officials investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks. The hotline number is for the reporting of such incidents if and when they occur.
ACLU of Illinois Launches Hotline for Muslims And Arab-Americans Unfairly Targeted by Law Enforcemen (09/27/2001)
CHICAGO -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois today launched a hotline in response to concerns that Muslims and persons of Arab descent may be unfairly targeted for investigation by law enforcement officials investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks. The hotline number is for the reporting of such incidents if and when they occur.
ACLU of Southern California Establishes Hotline for Discrimination Complaints (09/20/2001)
LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California announced today that broad, diverse coalitions at the national and local levels are emerging to advocate for a careful, balanced, and deliberative approach to questions of security and civil liberties and civil rights.
ACLU Calls for Investigation of Apparent Falsification of Race Data in Massachusetts Traffic Stop (09/04/2001)
BOSTON--Concerned that some police officers may be undermining efforts to report racial profiling, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts today said that it has asked officials in the seaside town of Wellfleet to investigate the misreporting of the race and gender of an African-American woman who was cited for speeding.
High-Profile Senate Hearing Highlights Dangers of Racial Profiling; ACLU Urges Congress to Pass Comprehensive Ban (08/01/2001)
WASHINGTON -- Only days after President Bush called racial profiling "wrong in America," the Senate today held a high-profile hearing on legislation that the American Civil Liberties Union said would deliver on the President's commitment and comprehensively ban racial profiling.
ACLU Applauds Minority Law Enforcement Alliance Opposition to Racial Profiling (07/26/2001)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union applauded a resolution adopted this afternoon by the Alliance of National Minority Law Enforcement Associations that supports comprehensive legislation to counter racial profiling, a practice that the Alliance said is the "foremost criminal justice and civil rights problem presently facing the nation."
ACLU Expresses Strong Support for Landmark Racial Profiling Bill, Calls it Best Chance Yet to End National Disgrace (06/06/2001)
WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union today joined with a bipartisan group of lawmakers and law enforcement officials from across the country in pledging support for landmark legislation designed to do away with the national disgrace of racial profiling.
ACLU of Michigan Applauds Introduction of Legislation to End Racial Profiling (05/31/2001)
DETROIT-- As the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and as vice-chair of Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust, a coalition of civil rights organizations, national, state and local law enforcement agencies, and community organizations that has been meeting for over two years on this issue, I applaud the introduction of Representative Buzz Thomas' legislation that will hopefully be the beginning of the end of racial profiling.
ACLU of PA Renews Call for Passage of Legislation to Address Racial Profiling (05/29/2001)
PHILADELPHIA--The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania today renewed its call for the passage of legislation that would seriously address the problem of racial profiling.
ACLU Racial Profiling Lawsuit in CA is Already Showing Results (05/29/2001)
LOS ANGELES--A federal class action lawsuit that charges that the California Highway Patrol uses racially biased patrolling standards is challenging fundamental drug war tactics in California, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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