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
How We Advocate for Our Communities in the Legislature
New Jersey Assembly Committee Advances Legislation to Prioritize Treatment Over Incarceration
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
Cases, Campaigns & Legislation
The Clemency Project
State v. Otte
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