Criminal Law Reform
The Criminal Law Reform Project seeks to end harsh policies and racial inequities in the criminal justice system.
![Criminal Law Reform issue image](https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2022/02/criminal-law-reform-issue-image.jpg)
What you need to know
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What We're Focused On
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Drug Law Reform
The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
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Public Defense Reform
The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
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Reforming Police
The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
What's at Stake
The Criminal Law Reform Project (CLRP) focuses its work on the “front end” of the criminal legal system—from policing to sentencing— seeking to end excessively harsh criminal justice policies that result in mass incarceration, over-criminalization, and racial injustice, and stand in the way of a fair and equal society.
By fighting for nationwide reforms to pretrial detention and surveillance, police practices, public defense systems, disproportionate sentencing, prosecutorial and/or judicial abuses of authority in the name of public safety, and failed drug policies which have failed to achieve public health while putting an unprecedented number of people behind bars, CLRP is working to fundamentally change the punishment bureaucracy by reversing the tide of incarceration, protecting constitutional rights, eliminating racism, and increasing government accountability and transparency.
The Criminal Law Reform Project (CLRP) focuses its work on the “front end” of the criminal legal system—from policing to sentencing— seeking to end excessively harsh criminal justice policies that result in mass incarceration, over-criminalization, and racial injustice, and stand in the way of a fair and equal society.
By fighting for nationwide reforms to pretrial detention and surveillance, police practices, public defense systems, disproportionate sentencing, prosecutorial and/or judicial abuses of authority in the name of public safety, and failed drug policies which have failed to achieve public health while putting an unprecedented number of people behind bars, CLRP is working to fundamentally change the punishment bureaucracy by reversing the tide of incarceration, protecting constitutional rights, eliminating racism, and increasing government accountability and transparency.