Bio
Vanita Gupta was Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union and Director of the ACLU’s Center for Justice, which houses the organization’s criminal justice reform, prisoners’ rights, and capital punishment work. She lead the ACLU’s National Campaign to End Mass Incarceration. In addition, Vanita is an adjunct clinical professor at NYU School of Law, where she teaches and oversees a racial justice litigation clinic.
From 2006-2010, Vanita was a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, focusing on systemic criminal justice reform, immigration detention, and education litigation. She won a landmark settlement on behalf of immigrant children detained in a privately-run prison in Texas that led to the end of “family detention” at the facility. Prior to joining the ACLU, Vanita was at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund where she successfully led the effort to overturn the wrongful drug convictions of 38 individuals in Tulia, Texas, and served on the legal team that won freedom for renowned prison journalist Wilbert Rideau in his fourth retrial after he had already spent 44 years in prison. She also successfully won significant sentence reductions for several men subject to harsh New York Rockefeller drug penalties.
Vanita has won numerous awards for her advocacy and has been quoted extensively in national and international media on racial justice and criminal justice issues. In 2011, the National Law Journal recognized her as a Top 40 Minority Lawyer Under 40. She serves on the board of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. Vanita is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University and received her law degree from New York University School of Law.
Featured work
![Attorney General Eric Holder](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/blog-holder-500x280-v01_0-400x266.jpg)
Aug 12, 2013
How to Process Eric Holder’s Major Criminal Law Reform Speech
![](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/blog-mjaction-500x280-400x266.jpg)
Jun 6, 2013
End the Numbers Game: Police Should Not Be Rewarded for Making Marijuana Arrests
![](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/blog-privpris-500x280-v01-400x266.jpg)
May 16, 2013
Open Letter to the Corrections Corporation of America after 30 Years of Locking People Up for Profit
![](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/500x280_0-400x266.jpg)
Mar 18, 2013
Too Many Still Wait to Hear Gideon's Trumpet
![](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/blog_criminallawreform_12-400x266.jpg)
Sep 5, 2012
It's Time to Discuss Criminal Justice Reform
![](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/blog_criminallawreform_12-400x266.jpg)
Sep 4, 2012
Hitting Two Birds with One Stone: Strategies for Addressing the Indigent Defense Crisis and Overincarceration
![A pair of hands in handcuffs](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/blog_criminallawreform-400x266.jpg)
Jun 13, 2012
Why Are We Spending So Much To Lock Up Elderly Prisoners Who Pose Little Threat?
![A pair of hands in handcuffs](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2019/09/blog_criminallawreform-400x266.jpg)
May 4, 2012
Georgia Chooses Path Toward Criminal Justice Reform; Oklahoma Misses an Opportunity