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
Pardons Change Lives – Categorical Clemency Proves New Jersey’s Commitment to Racial Justice and Rehabilitation
ACLU-NJ Celebrates James Comer’s Release After His Groundbreaking Cases Transformed Extreme Life Sentences for Children
Clemency is More Than Mercy – It's Freedom
As Summit Considers Banning Sleeping in Public Spaces, Community Members Demand More Humane Policies
Cases, Campaigns & Legislation
State v. Garcia-Moronta & State v. Reyes-Rodriguez
State v. Mustafa
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