Publications

The California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (“CVRA” or “Act”) is one of the state’s most significant civil rights laws and a powerful tool to combat vote dilution. Authored by then-Senator Richard Polanco and inspired by the vision of voting rights giant Joaquin G. Avila, the CVRA was enacted in 2002 to address the persistent harms of dilutive at-large election systems in California—systems that have... Read More

California's Native American students learn and grow amid a fundamental contradiction: while their families, cultures, and Tribes embrace education as central to their ways of life, California's school systems too often fail to provide them with an equitable and inclusive education. Read More

Long before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state must provide a lawyer to poor people charged with crimes, many counties in California already did so. Yet today, after years of neglect by the state, California is in the midst of a decades-long public defense crisis. Read More

This report highlights the remaining barriers that conviction and incarceration impose with respect to bodily autonomy, family unity, and reproductive futures, and proposes solutions to these challenges. Read More

California’s immigration detention facilities are plagued by severe and ongoing human rights abuse. Read More

In recent decades, surveillance has increased exponentially. It has not made us safer. On the contrary, the explosion in AI means that surveillance systems will become more powerful and more dangerous every year. This guide makes the case for non-surveillance interventions, giving policymakers the resources they need to meet this moment. Read More

This joint report from ACLU NorCal and Catalyst California (formerly Advancement Project California) highlights strategies Sacramento County leaders should make to improve community safety and reduce systemic racial inequity in the criminal legal system. An analysis of 2019 data collected under California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) found that the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office ... Read More

California prisons systematically profile and report suspected immigrants to ICE, a new public record act investigation reveals. Read More

In 2021, we partnered with the Black Bill of Rights to develop a community toolkit for people seeking to address systemic oppression and anti-Black racism. The Black Bill of Rights is a resource hub that provides education, templates, and data for communities to take action and develop policies and practices that restore freedom and opportunity for Black people in the United States. It is an ever-... Read More

Over the past decade, the California Legislature enacted a trio of critical laws intended to protect people from collusion between state and local law enforcement agencies and agencies engaged in immigration enforcement. Certain sheriffs and local law enforcement agencies, however, have circumvented these laws and undermined the protections envisioned for California immigrants — at times in consul... Read More

Sacramento County is an important jurisdiction for reform of the laws and policies that produce mass incarceration. The county incarcerates roughly 10,000 people between county jails and state prisons. The DA, Sheriff’s Department, Probation Department, and courts consume 64 percent of the County General Fund, yet the county’s crime rate — though slightly higher than the state and federal average ... Read More

California and the United States as a whole incarcerate more people than anywhere else in the world, in both absolute and per capita terms1 District attorneys (DAs) in California can have a powerful role in curbing mass incarceration and hold tremendous discretion within the criminal legal system, but they have historically been subject to limited accountability. This report outlines the practices... Read More