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Criminal Justice System

Our criminal laws, while facially neutral, are enforced in a manner that is massively and pervasively biased. The injustices of the criminal justice system threaten to render irrelevant fifty years of hard-fought civil rights progress.

Items 1 - 10 of 64

Civil Rights Groups and Conservative Leaders Urge FCC to End Practice of Predatory Prison Phone Rates

May 21, 2012 - Posted by Avril Lighty

With a joint letter and a press call, civil rights groups and conservative leaders have united to urge the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reform prison phone rates.

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Monitor Weekly - The Latest in Civil and Human Rights

April 28, 2012 - Posted by Ron Bigler

A Critical Tool for Protecting Women. The Leadership Conference this week welcomed the passage of S.1925, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA), in the U.S. Senate. The bill is now awaiting action in the House.
Restoring Balance on the Use of Criminal Background Checks. A coalition of 55 national and local civil rights organizations this week applauded the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for clarifying the standards how employers should use criminal background checks.
Keeping Student Loans Affordable. The Leadership Conference this week welcomed the introduction of the Stop Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act of 2012.

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Legislators and Civil Rights Groups Call on Congress to End Racial Profiling

September 16, 2011 - Posted by The Leadership Conference

At a press conference this week designed to push Congress and the Obama administration to pass the End Racial Profiling Act of 2011 (ERPA), the Rights Working Group released a new report advocating not only for the prohibition of racial profiling but for greater oversight of law enforcement with regard to civil rights protections.

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NAACP Issues Call to End the Drug War

July 29, 2011 - Posted by The Leadership Conference

Earlier this week at its 102nd Annual Convention in Los Angeles, the NAACP issued a resolution entitled, “A Call to End the War on Drugs, Allocate Funding to Investigate Substance Abuse Treatment, Education, and Opportunities in Communities of Color for A Better Tomorrow.” While the text of the resolution will not be available until its national board approves it in October, a press statement following the vote criticized the drug war as discriminatory, costly, and counterproductive.

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Attorney General Holder Pursues Fairness in Crack Cocaine Cases

July 21, 2011 - Posted by The Leadership Conference

Federal prosecutors will no longer charge crack cocaine defendants under a previous and more punitive law simply because their conduct predated the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), Attorney General Eric Holder announced in a memorandum last week.

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Justice Department: New Sentencing Law Should Apply to Some Imprisoned Crack Offenders

June 6, 2011 - Posted by The Leadership Conference

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has endorsed a limited form of retroactive application of sentencing guidelines designed to take into account the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), which reduced the discriminatory sentencing disparity between powder cocaine and crack cocaine offenses.

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Civil Rights Groups Call for Retroactive Application of Guidelines for Cocaine Sentencing

May 25, 2011 - Posted by Tyler Lewis

A group of seven prominent national civil rights organizations that includes The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder urging him to support the retroactive application of a new set of sentencing guidelines that accompany the implementation of the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), which reduced the discriminatory sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses.

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Supreme Court Orders California to Reduce Its Prison Population, Address Civil Rights Violations

May 24, 2011 - Posted by Avril Lighty

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that overcrowding in California prisons, which has led to grossly unsanitary conditions and inadequate access to medical and mental health care, violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

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Report: Employers Discriminating Against Individuals with Criminal Records

March 28, 2011 - Posted by The Leadership Conference

Employers are discriminating against millions of Americans with criminal records, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

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Department of Justice Investigation Reveals Racial, LGBT, and Gender-Biased Policing by the New Orleans Police Department

March 23, 2011 - Posted by The Leadership Conference

Use of excessive force, racial and ethnic profiling, and under-enforcement of violence against women are just a few of several constitutional and federal law violations made by the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), according to a report recently released by the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

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