News & Commentary

Our children are in the midst of a student mental health crisis. As Mental Health Awareness Month comes to an end, let’s look ahead to a future where all students thrive.

At the ACLU of Ohio, we believe all children have the capacity to change and are deserving of second chances. Justice-involved youth should be provided with opportunities for treatment, rehabilitation, and positive reinforcement.

While the end of childhood may not be clearly defined, it is clear that it should not be defined by the criminal legal system.

Contract negotiations are complicated, hyper technical, and usually carried out privately without any public input.

We must not allow the criminal “justice” system to continue devastating families and individual lives with this injustice and flagrant punishment of poor communities

It was a Saturday in August 2017 when I drove across town to gather in Euclid with family and friends of Luke Stewart, a young father who was killed by Euclid Police after they found him sleeping in his parked car. It was sunny and humid, and people had brought bagels, donuts, coffee. We were canvassing the neighborhood to invite residents to an upcoming city council meeting to demand accountability for the City’s senseless taking of life.

As part of its consent decree process, the Cleveland Division of Police is revising its search and seizure policies, which govern when and how officers can stop, arrest, and detain community members. Although its 2018 revised drafts represent an improvement, there are still changes that must be made for the policies to comply with basic best practices.