Racial Justice

On April 9, 2013 the ACLU of Ohio released a timeline to state legislators and the public chronicling the first 18-months in the life of Lake Erie Correctional Institution (LaECI), the nation’s first prison sold to a for-profit company.

The timeline tells the story of a facility that has rapidly become unsafe for inmates, employees, and the surrounding community.

Click here for more information.

The Constitution prohibits courts from jailing those who can’t afford to pay their fines.

So does Ohio law.

Our courts are doing it anyway.

Click here to learn more.

Thanks to the efforts of activists and advocacy groups, the Ohio General Assembly has not yet passed House Bill 159, which would restrict access to the polls for all Ohioans and for voters of color in particular. However, the OGA will continue to debate the bill. HB 159 requires a voter to show one of four kinds of government-issued photo ID and amounts to a modern day poll tax for people who do not already have an ID. Research shows that this includes more than 21 million Americans; a disproportionate number of whom are racial and ethnic minorities.

More information about HB 159 and protecting your right to vote is available on our Voting Rights page.

After declaring their birth certificates issued prior to 2010 invalid, Puerto Rico is facing a backlog of requests for new birth certificates. Without the documents, many Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, are unable to obtain a state I.D., which can be necessary for securing employment, voting, or accessing social services.

In January 2010, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico decided to begin issuing new, more secure birth certificates, and by September of that year, they no longer recognized certificates issued before 2010. However, the Ohio BMV refused to recognize Puerto Rican birth certificates from April 2010, well before many Puerto Ricans had their new documents. The ACLU of Ohio called on the Ohio BMV to end this discriminatory policy.

People of color are grossly overrepresented at every step of the criminal justice system, and nearly half of people incarcerated are black or Latino. In August 2010, the ACLU of Ohio released a report that reveals the unfair policies and practices that result in disproportionate incarceration of people of color in Ohio. “Reform Cannot Wait: A Comprehensive Examination of the Cost of Incarceration in Ohio from 1991-2010” also highlights the cost of these disparities for all Ohioans.

In June 2011, the ACLU of Ohio focused specifically on racial justice and drug policy in the greater Cleveland area in “Overcharging, Overspending, Overlooking: Cuyahoga County’s Costly War on Drugs“. The report shows that drug policies are not enforced fairly based on the person’s race and where the person lives and was made possible by support from the Drug Policy Alliance.

Youth of color are more likely than their peers to be arrested, charged, adjudicated delinquent, and detained in a juvenile facility. The ACLU, the ACLU of Ohio, the Children’s Law Center and the Office of the Ohio Public Defender are currently monitoring these disparities, termed “disproportionate minority contact,” and released a Report Card: Evaluating Juvenile Justice in Ohio.

In 2007, the Department of Youth Services began an effort to monitor and reduce disproportionate minority contact. The ACLU of Ohio is currently evaluating if these efforts have been successful and plans to update the Report Card in Fall of 2011.

The ACLU of Ohio is a founding member of Citizens for a Safe & Fair Cleveland, a coalition created to work towards unbiased law enforcement and judicial equity as related to drug laws.

In 2008, the coalition commissioned a study to examine the selective enforcement of drug laws in Cuyahoga County. Selective Enforcement of Drug Laws in Cuyahoga County, Ohio: A Report on the Racial Effects of Geographic Disparities in Arrest Patterns finds that African Americans and other minorities in the city of Cleveland are more often charged with felony drug possession than their suburban peers.

Using the report as a resource, the coalition successfully lobbied Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to change the city’s procedure for handling drug paraphernalia cases to reflect those followed by greater Cuyahoga County.

Incarcerating a person simply because he or she cannot afford to pay court costs and fines is prohibited by state law and unconstitutional. The ACLU of Ohio has questioned one Erie County judge about his practice of jailing defendants who cannot or do not pay fines or fees, and has also spoken out against pay-to-stay jail schemes in Summit County, Monroe County, and Franklin County.

In October 2010, the ACLU released “In For A Penny”, a startling new report that profiles five states — including Ohio — that imprison people because they cannot pay fines. The report highlights the negative consequences for budgets and public safety, noting that jailing one person for 30 days costs more than $1500, causes disruptions in employment, and can contribute to recidivism.

Learn more about Racial Justice at the ACLU national website.