Archive

I'm one of these brothers that have been through the front gates of San Quentin and the front gates of the White House, and I can't necessarily say that was a short stroll. I wish I could say it was an easy thing to do. Read More

Rather than sinking more resources into incarceration, San Francisco should invest in smart approaches to crime prevention and public safety. Building a new jail will duplicate the mistakes of the past and exacerbate the failings of our current system. Read More

Today, the ACLU sent the Butte County Board of Supervisors a letter to warn them that their proposal to take $650,000 from the Inmate Welfare Fund – a fund that is supposed to be used for inmates’ welfare and not everyday costs associated with housing them – to help pay for the cost of building a new county jail is illegal as well as just bad public policy. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California joins San Francisco community members in demanding justice for 26-year old Mario Woods. Woods died Wednesday after police shot him multiple times in San Francisco’s Bayview district. Read More

Not only has the Orange County Sheriff’s Department been secretly facilitating efforts by jailhouse informants to elicit statements from fellow inmates, but the Orange County District Attorney’s office appears to have systemically concealed evidence about these informants from defense attorneys, including evidence that would exonerate defendants. Read More

Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling which had found California’s death penalty unconstitutional. But although death penalty proponents may be claiming a big victory, today’s ruling is just another example of how dysfunctional California’s death penalty system is. Read More

Last Friday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) made public proposed regulations on a new lethal injection protocol. This triggered the public comment period under California’s Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which ensures the public has a right to participate in every step of the regulatory process so that our concerns are addressed in a meaningful way. Read More

In June, Fresno County Sheriff Mims allowed ICE agents to be stationed inside the local jail, stirring fear in a community she vowed to protect. Read More

The ACLU of California today released a report that finds both successes and challenges in Prop 47’s first year. The report includes 40 county snapshots with information on public safety spending, incarceration and crime trends, and a decline of people sentenced for low-level felonies. Read More

Monterey County’s Sheriff Steve Bernal just gave Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) unlimited access to all jail records and detainees… and he did it without even letting the public know. Read More