In the face of fiscal crises, state governments are making smart investments in alternatives to mass incarceration. The ACLU’s unique and powerful network of state affiliates has been and continues to work on the frontlines to reduce the number of people behind bars while protecting public safety, saving taxpayer dollars, and ensuring fairness for all.
Litigation leads to landmark administrative reform
Unit 32 of Mississippi’s Parchman Prison was notorious for its dangerous and deplorable conditions. The ACLU of Mississippi and the ACLU’s National Prison Project brought litigation in 2002 on behalf of Unit 32 prisoners to demand basic medical care, safety and humane living conditions. In 2010, the ACLU settled the case, which resulted in the closing of Unit 32 and the transfer of its prisoners to better-equipped, safer and less crowded prisons. The historic settlement gave rise to historic legislative reform as well, which made non-violent offenders eligible for parole after serving 25% of their initial sentence. State policymakers and correctional officials, including the Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, are coming to a consensus that overcrowded prisons are unsafe prisons. The ACLU of Mississippi continues to work with directly-affected community members, lawmakers and criminal justice policymakers to address the crisis of mass incarceration in the state’s prisons and jails. The ACLU of Mississippi and the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project, along with Justice Strategies, released a report in March 2011, Numbers Game: The Vicious Cycle of Incarceration in Mississippi’s Criminal Justice System, which examines the causes and effects of mass incarceration in the state. The ACLU will be pushing these legislative and administrative recommendations.
Related Content:
> Numbers Game: The Vicious Cycle of Incarceration in Mississippi's Criminal Justice System
> Blog Series: Breaking the Addiction to Incarceration
> ACLU of Mississippi: Criminal Justice