Criminal Legal System
America’s criminal legal system is rooted in excessively punitive policies that have resulted in over-criminalization, mass incarceration, and racial injustice, with the brunt of harms disproportionately falling on people of color, as well as immigrants, people with low-incomes, and LGBTQ+ people.
America’s criminal legal system is rooted in excessively punitive policies that have resulted in over-criminalization, mass incarceration, and racial injustice, with the brunt of harms disproportionately falling on people of color, especially Black Americans, as well as immigrants, people with low-incomes, and LGBTQ+ people.
The ACLU-NJ works to make our criminal legal system more just with a guiding vision of racial justice. We challenge the imbalances of power and the discrimination that have come to define our country’s criminal legal system. We push to re-envision of the role of police in our communities, confront the disproportionate power of prosecutors in criminal cases, and advocate for the decarceration of New Jersey’s jails and prisons – which have the worst Black-white disparity of any state in the nation.
The Latest
The Newark Consent Decree: Forging a Path Toward Police Accountability and Racial Justice
New Jersey Lawmakers Reintroduce Substance Abuse Recovery and Accountability Act to Strengthen Public Safety and Improve Supervision Outcomes
ACLU-NJ Responds to NJSC Ruling Applying Constitutional Safeguards to Use of Facial Recognition in Criminal Investigations
Cases, Campaigns & Legislation
The Clemency Project
Pursuing the End of Mass Incarceration in New Jersey
COVID-19: What It Means For Your Rights
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