Smart Justice

For too long, Ohio’s criminal legal system has fueled mass incarceration as well as systemic racial and economic injustice. It disproportionately targets Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, criminalizes poverty and addiction, and devastates entire communities—while failing to deliver real safety. The current system pours billions into punishment and surveillance instead of investing in what actually keeps people safe: housing, education, mental health care, and economic opportunity.

Additionally, the pervasive use of surveillance tools in marginalized neighborhoods contributes to an overarching erosion of privacy and biased policing. Residents in marginalized communities often experience a “chilling effect,” where the constant awareness of being watched deters them from participating in civic and democratic life.

The ACLU of Ohio is working to end this injustice at its roots. We are fighting to reduce prison populations, decriminalize poverty and drug use, establish alternative crisis response programs, and abolish the death penalty.

We face a choice: continue investing in a system that harms and divides—or build one that heals, protects, and uplifts. We choose facts over fear mongering and people over prisons.