News & Commentary about Smart Justice

The ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice is an unprecedented, multiyear effort to reduce the U.S. jail and prison population by 50% and to challenge racism in the criminal legal system.

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President Bill Clinton signs the $30 billion crime bill during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Sept. 13, 1994

Jun 4, 2019

How the 1994 Crime Bill Fed the Mass Incarceration Crisis

A group of incarcerated people walking a concrete yard

May 23, 2019

The Next President Can Cut Incarceration Rates in Half

May 22, 2019

We’re Suing Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery to Release the Records He’s Hiding From Arizonans.

May 7, 2019

Mistakenly Jailed Pretrial, an Ohio Mother Lost Her Job and Kids

Apr 19, 2019

We Sued to End the Evils of Cash Bail in Michigan

Apr 4, 2019

We Are Fighting Maricopa County’s Rampant Prosecutorial Misconduct

Apr 2, 2019

America’s Pretrial System Is Broken. Here’s Our Vision to Fix It.

Mar 29, 2019

How a Federal Judge Missed the Mark in Explaining Paul Manafort’s Sentence

Mar 22, 2019

In Boston, People Are Charged With Crimes That Waste Taxpayers’ Money and Prosecutors’ Time

Mar 21, 2019

A Poet Gives a 360 Degree View of the Criminal Justice System