2015 May

05.29.15

Breaking Up the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Lauren Hawkes

School provides youth with the necessary skills to develop and mature into adults and citizens, or so we’ve been told by our parents as soon as we were old enough to attend.

Unfortunately, school administrators have hindered this mission by inappropriately disciplining students for nonviolent behavior.

05.27.15

Making Re-Entry Fair

Steve David

The corrections officer was putting on a show for us when we arrived at the Chillicothe Correction Institution (CCI) for their spring re-entry fair.

I arrived the same time as two women who ran a support group for families with loved ones in prison.

05.25.15

Does Being in Jail Mean You Give Up Your Religious Rights?

Fred Ross

Given our state’s overcrowded jails and prisons, it’s only fitting we keep a particularly sharp focus on prisoners’ constitutional rights by guarding their First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

Incident One: December 2014

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised by the federal lawsuit initiated in December 2014 by a 24-year-old Rocky River woman, who is a Muslim.

05.22.15

Being a Witness Is Not Enough

Ellen Kubit

If you pay any attention to the news lately, you would think that the country is suddenly in the midst of a police misconduct crisis.  Every month or so, we learn about how a police officer killed someone of color: Michael Brown, John Crawford, Eric Garner, Tanisha Anderson, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Tony Robinson, and unfortunately, far too many more.

05.20.15

Cuts to Medicaid Are Costly to Women’s Health…and to Taxpayers

Jill Davis

Every now and then politicians get it right, and so it was with Ohio’s Medicaid expansion.

Following the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2013, Governor Kasich expanded Medicaid coverage to families earning up to about $40,000 a year for the typical family of three.

05.18.15

Government Snooping On Your Cell Phone

Fred Ross

It’s known as Stingray, cell-site simulator and many other names.

This powerful surveillance tool is employed by 12 federal agencies, as well as 51 agencies in 21 states and the District of Columbia to capture cell phone locations, physical movements, frequencies of use, user and contact ID numbers, call destinations, etc.

05.15.15

We Need Real Protections For the LGBT Community

Fred Ross

After Indiana’s government amended its Religious Freedom Restoration Act in April, it’s clear there still is no comprehensive nondiscrimination protection there for LGBT populations. The act offers “anti-discrimination protections for gays and lesbians only in 11 Indiana communities where such protections already exist.”

This Is Important to Ohioans

As an Ohioan, you might say, “So what?”

But when your neighbors are denied rights, in the truest sense you are as well.

05.13.15

For Girls of Color Who Have Been Violated by the TSA

Shakyra Diaz

Photograph Dan Paluska via Flickr Creative Commons

I am a Caribbean woman by way of the Dominican Republic. I wear my hair in a natural, curly afro.

I also work for the ACLU of Ohio. Often, I find myself on the receiving end of the racial profiling that I work to end, and air travel is a good example.

05.11.15

Solitary Confinement is NOT Rehabilitative

Adrienne Gavula

It was a chilly October last year when my colleague and I visited the super-maximum security (super-max) Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown. Before entering, I thought there was nothing more restrictive than the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, aka Lucasville prison. I could not have been more wrong.

05.08.15

Drug Testing Welfare Recipients Creates, Not Solves, Problems

Gary Daniels

If you spend enough time at the Ohio Statehouse you quickly learn bad ideas have a habit of never going away.

Such is the case with the drug-testing of welfare recipients. Legislation to accomplish this has been introduced in previous legislative sessions, but stalled for unknown reasons.

05.04.15

Is the Supreme Court Ready to Make Marriage Equality the Law of the Land?

Susan J. Becker

Oral arguments provide a small window into the super-secretive process of Supreme Court deliberations. Justices frequently telegraph their views on the case in the questions they ask and their reactions to the attorneys’ answers.

These often-feisty exchanges between justices and attorneys–and sometimes between the justices themselves–do not, however, always predict how the Court will rule.

05.01.15

Vote: Let’s Get Free!

Shakyra Diaz

In this country money and votes matter. These two factors determine whether or not the people elected to represent us will listen to us. We may or may not have the money to be heard but many of us do have the right to vote and that scares some people.