ACLU Outlines Key Priorities for Biden’s Department of Justice
WASHINGTON — Ahead of Attorney General-designate Merrick Garland's Senate confirmation hearing, the American Civil Liberties Union urged him to make strong, on-the-record commitments on five critical criminal justice issues outlined below.
The following is a statement from Cynthia Roseberry, deputy director of the ACLU’s Justice Division:
“We applaud President Biden’s pledge to heal our country and reform our criminal legal system, and look forward to working with him and the attorney general nominee, Merrick Garland, to advance our shared goals. The Department of Justice must begin its work by addressing the national reckoning on racial justice that our country has seen over the course of the last year. While there was bipartisan support behind legislation like the First Step Act, under Attorneys General Sessions and Barr, DOJ supported the use of police violence against peaceful protesters, reinstated tough-on-crime charging and sentencing policies, and failed to use its authority to prevent hundreds of deaths from COVID-19 of individuals held in federal custody.
“In order to begin the process of true repair to those directly impacted, it's imperative that the Biden DOJ take decisive action to create a criminal legal system that is not only just but also provides a chance at redemption for those who are still bearing the burden of a generations long war on drugs, and the world's largest system of mass incarceration which disparately impacts people of color.”
Mass Incarceration: The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but 20 percent of the world’s incarcerated people, disproportionately from Black and Latinx communities. To combat the epidemic of mass incarceration, we urge the next attorney general to:
- Direct prosecutors to stop charging mandatory minimums when alternative charges are available;
- De-prioritize marijuana prosecutions, as well as misdemeanor possession cases for all types of controlled substances; and
- Support the MORE Act.
Policing: The next attorney general will need to begin by reversing the damage done by the Trump administration’s explicit endorsements of police violence and militarization by:
- Adopting a federal use of force standard that would permit officers to use force only when necessary, proportional, and as a last resort, after less extreme alternatives are exhausted; and
- Prohibiting civil asset forfeiture programs that enable the militarization of local and state police departments.
COVID-19 in Federal Detention: Trump’s DOJ failed to use available levers for release to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in detention facilities. We urge the next attorney general to swiftly:
- Offer vaccinations with appropriate patient education and incentives to all persons in federal custody, including all persons incarcerated in private contract facilities; and
- Decarcerate by expanding BOP’s use of home confinement and ending DOJ’s near-universal opposition to compassionate release motions.
The Federal Death Penalty: The federal death penalty is plagued by racism, geographic arbitrariness, and unfairness — just like the death penalty in the states. The next attorney general should:
- Immediately suspend all federal executions;
- Make it the policy of DOJ to not seek the death penalty in any case; and
- Support executive clemency for individuals currently on federal death row.
Solitary Confinement: During the pandemic, COVID-19 infection rates and deaths have been exacerbated in prisons and jail due to misguided attempts to mitigate the spread of the virus through increased use of solitary confinement in lieu of medical isolation. The result has been nearly a 500 percent increase in the use of solitary confinement in 2020, with an estimated 300,000 people in solitary at any one time. To address the current spike in solitary confinement, which is a form of torture, we urge DOJ to:
- Commit to swiftly end the ineffective and inhumane use of solitary confinement by the federal Bureau of Prisons and U.S. Marshals Service during the pandemic.
The letter is available here: /letter/aclu-letter-merrick-garland-priorities-bidens-department-justice
Learn More About the Issues in This Press Release
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
Prisoners' Rights
Criminal Law Reform
ACLU Sues Bureau of Prisons for Keeping People in Prison Longer Than the Law AllowsACLU Sues Bureau of Prisons for Keeping People in Prison Longer Than the Law Allows
WASHINGTON – A federal lawsuit brought today by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of D.C., and Jenner & Block LLP challenges the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for unlawfully incarcerating people longer than the law allows under the First Step Act. The lawsuit contends that the BOP’s failure to implement the First Step Act according to its plain language violates the rights of thousands of people who should be returning to their communities and rebuilding their lives but instead remain incarcerated. Signed into law in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump, the bipartisan First Step Act was designed to reduce the population in federal prisons, reform extreme sentencing laws, and provide programming and reentry transition services to people in prison. Central to the First Step Act is a system of earned time credits, which allows people in prison to earn time off their sentences and time out of prison by participating in rehabilitation programs. Through the First Step Act, Congress unambiguously ordered BOP to move people out of prison when they meet certain requirements to use their earned time credits. Instead of faithfully following the mandatory law, BOP adopted a regulation treating the law as optional. As a result, thousands of people, who should already be back in their communities and with their families, remain in prison. “Every extra unlawful day our clients spend in prison is a serious injustice,” said Emma Andersson, deputy director of the Criminal Law Reform Project at the ACLU. “It is egregious that the Bureau of Prisons is imprisoning people for months longer than the law allows. The government must follow through on its legal obligation to get people out of prison on time and back into their communities, where they belong.” Additional comments below from: Vanessa Crowe, plaintiff: “Time is what I owed for my wrongdoing, and I have paid my time. But I should not have to spend more time in prison than the law allows. I often reflect on what I will miss during the months after when I should be out of prison. I will miss work and lose out on wages that would help me get back on my feet. I could be a tax paying citizen instead of a burden on society. But most of all, I will miss more precious time with my family. My family and I are ready to tum the page on this period in our lives — we are all ready to start a new life, a life with purpose, hope, and healing together. I want to start that life when I am legally entitled to start it-not five months later.” Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel at ACLU of D.C.: “There’s no excuse for the Bureau of Prisons to pretend not to understand Congress’s clear command that people who have earned the right to early release must be released. This law has been on the books for six years. The Bureau of Prisons has had plenty of time to understand it. Law enforcers should obey the law.” Betsy Henthorne, partner at Jenner & Block: “It has been six years since the First Step Act was signed, but despite Congress’s clear directives, the Bureau of Prisons continues to hold thousands of people in prison longer than the law allows. We should and do expect better—it’s past time for the BOP to ensure that those who have earned their release are able to return home to their families and communities according to the law Congress passed.” -
Maryland Supreme CourtDec 2024
Criminal Law Reform
Roland Branch v. State of MarylandRoland Branch v. State of Maryland
This petition to the Supreme Court of Maryland asked the court to reconsider its adherence to Whren v. U.S., 517 U.S. 806 (1996), which declared that a traffic stop undertaken for pretextual reasons does not violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so long as the police have probable cause to believe that a traffic violation occurred. The ACLU, alongside the ACLU of Maryland, filed an amicus brief in support of the defendant’s petition, in which the ACLU argued that the court should take up the question of whether pretextual stops violate the Maryland Constitution. In September 2024, the Court denied the petition. -
North Carolina Supreme CourtDec 2024
Criminal Law Reform
State v. WrightState v. Wright
This case in the North Carolina Supreme Court involves the question of whether the police violated the U.S. Constitution when they searched the defendant, Mr. Wright’s, backpack even after he repeatedly said no to the search requests. The ACLU alongside the ACLU of North Carolina filed an amicus brief arguing that the search was unconstitutional because Mr. Wright’s eventual “consent” was the result of police coercion. Our brief urges the court to consider the totality of the circumstances that make one more susceptible to coercion, including race and poverty. -
News & CommentaryDec 2024
Criminal Law Reform
Disability Rights
Incarceration Should Not be a Death Sentence for Individuals Who Use OpioidsIncarceration Should Not be a Death Sentence for Individuals Who Use Opioids
New litigation centered on increasing access to substance-use disorder treatment in jails and prisons is helping to reduce mortality rates among incarcerated individuals.