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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 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.
ACLU Applauds Congressional Black Caucus For Focus on Racial Profiling; Urges Congress to Act Quickly to End National Disgrace (05/22/2001)
WASHINGTON -- Testifying in a special hearing called by the Congressional Black Caucus on the national disgrace of racial profiling, the American Civil Liberties Union today urged Congress to quickly adopt new legislation that would comprehensively prohibit the practice.
NYCLU Asks Supreme Court to Review Case in Which Police Targeted Entire Minority Community (05/21/2001)
NEW YORK--In a case raising important questions about racial profiling by law enforcement officials, the New York Civil Liberties Union has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a notorious 1992 police sweep of minorities in the upstate community of Oneonta.
Citing Continued Police Denial of Racial Profiling, ACLU Renews Call for Federal Traffic Stops Law (05/16/2001)
WASHINGTON--The American Civil Liberties Union today renewed its call for Congressional sponsorship of legislation to address the problem of racial profiling, saying that local police denial of the practice continues and that comprehensive federally mandated legislation is needed despite state efforts to address the problem.
ACLU Files "Driving While Black" Lawsuit Against Rhode Island Police (05/15/2001)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island today filed a federal lawsuit against the Town of Westerly on behalf of Bernard Flowers, a 50-year-old African-American man who last September was illegally stopped in his car and suffered chest pains after being detained at gunpoint by town police.
Oakland Police Department Announces Results of Racial Profiling Data Collection Program (05/11/2001)
SAN FRANCISCO -- The ACLU of Northern California today applauded the Oakland Police Department's data collection program, but expressed deep concern abut the results of the initial data collection efforts that shows that African Americans are 3.3 times as likely to be searched during a traffic stop as whites. The ACLU calls on the Oakland Police Department to ban consent searches and pretext stops that likely contribute to the discriminatory results.
ACLU of Nebraska Wins "Flying While Black" Case (05/02/2001)
LINCOLN, NE -- A young African American businessman emerged victorious today in the ongoing battle against the practice of racial profiling. The Drug Enforcement Agency has agreed to return more than $7,000 that it seized from him while he was waiting to catch a plane at Omaha Eppley Airfield.
Annapolis Will Not Appeal Federal Court's Rejection Of "Loitering While Black" Law in ACLU Challenge (04/26/2001)
ANNAPOLIS, MD - The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland today commended the Annapolis City Council's decision to not appeal the March 30, 2001 federal court ruling striking down the city's loitering ordinance.
California Highway Patrol Bans Consent Searches (04/20/2001)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- The California Highway Patrol's commissioner ordered a ban on some car searches Thursday, a move that civil liberties groups say is a tacit admission that officers single out minority drivers for unfair treatment, the Associated Press reported. According to the AP, CHP Commissioner D.O. "Spike" Helmick ordered a six-month moratorium on "consent searches," which officers can conduct only if they receive permission from a driver.
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