Pack the courtroom for the hearing on Abu-Jamal v. Kane, challenging Prisoner Gag Law SB 508, on Thursday, Feb. 26, 10 a.m., in U.S. Courthouse, 228 Walnut St., Courtroom 2, Harrisburg, Penn. by Willow Katz “(T)he only recourse for those who demand accountability and the rule of law in the justice system is to amplify […]
Tag Archives: American Civil Liberties Union
We have Launched a Campaign to Defend First Amendment Rights, and You Can Help Protect Prisoners’ Right to Speak. This is an historic time for movements against mass incarceration and state repression in the United States. Last week PA Governor Tom Corbett signed SB508 into law, effective immediately, which allows the State Attorney General […]
by Matthew Harwood Think of it as a different kind of blowback. Even when you fight wars in countries thousands of miles distant, they still have an eerie way of making the long trip home. Take the latest news from Bergen County, New Jersey, one of the richest counties in the country. Its sheriff’s department […]
ACLU hits brick wall after issuing public records requests for information about deadly force, incident reports, and more. – Sarah Lazare, staff writer SWAT Team (Photo: Oregon Department of Transportation / Flickr Creative Commons)Operators of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams comprised of tax payer-funded police and sheriffs in Massachusetts claim they are immune […]
By Radley Balko The American Civil Liberties Union has released the results of its year-long study of police militarization. The study looked at 800 deployments of SWAT teams among 20 local, state and federal police agencies in 2011-2012. Among the notable findings: 62 percent of the SWAT raids surveyed were to conduct searches for drugs. […]
Undocumented migrants have become easy cash cows for private prison companies. As states move for the first time in decades to address swollen prisoner populations, federal immigration detention centers are the new front in private prison corporations’ business strategy, and undocumented migrants their easy cash cows. Around the country there are 13 Criminal Alien Requirement […]
Below is the full text of a statement published today, May 8 2014m, at Cedric Richmond‘s website. A PDF of the bill itself is included as an attachment. solitaryfinal.pdf download PDF (61.4 KB) http://richmond.house.gov/press-release/rep-richmond-introduces-bill-reform-solitary-confinement Rep. Richmond Introduces Bill to Reform Solitary Confinement Washington DC — Today, Rep. Richmond (LA-02) introduced a bill which […]
by Seema Sadanandan In the nation’s capital, police are now forbidden to cite the smell of marijuana has the basis for a search. “It is the first decriminalization bill in the country to prohibit police from stopping, questioning, and searching people based on the alleged smell of marijuana alone.” Decriminalizing Small Quantities […]
James Ridgeway, from Solitary Watch, asks are the health needs of American prisoners being neglected. Image credit: Jumilla at Flickr There are 2.3 million people in US prisons in conditions that are often inhumane and at worst life threatening. An estimated 80,000 of US prisoners are locked up in solitary confinement, which means in a […]
by Abdul Mujahid Khalil, aka Lester Smith In response to the story, “California can lead the movement to limit solitary confinement,” by Margaret Winter of the ACLU in the November Bay View, well, fellas, hot damn! It’s about time. That story is 100 percent genuine. Rodriques Dukes peers through the tray slot of his cell […]
