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Latest Racial Justice News on the ACLU Blog of Rights >> Racial Justice Issues in Your State >> ACLU Report Reveals Arrests At Hartford-Area Schools On Rise A recently released report by the ACLU and its affiliate, the ACLU of Connecticut, has brought to site the unusual number of police arrests of children in the Hartford area. According to this new study, the trend is one that disproportionately impacts children of color. The report shows how the use by school districts in Hartford, East Hartford and West Hartford of school resource officers who are not adequately trained and whose objectives are not clearly defined leads to the criminalization of students at the expense of their education. > Report: Hard Lessons: School Resource Officer Programs and School-Based Arrests in Three Connecticut Towns > Audio: ACLU Attorney Jamie Dycus on WNPR-CBPN > Hartford Courant Coverage Nov. 18, 2008 >Hartford Courant Coverage Nov. 29, 2008 >New York Times Coverage Jan. 5 2009 NYCLU, ACLU Warn NYPD about Illegal Arrests of Schoolchildren The New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union have demanded that NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly immediately end the unlawful practice of arresting children in New York City public schools who have not committed crimes. > Press Release > School-to-Prison-Pipeline ACLU Challenges State Department's Refusal To Issue Passports To U.S. Citizens The ACLU, the ACLU of Texas and cooperating attorneys have sued the federal government on behalf of nine American citizens who have had their applications for U.S. passports denied because of their race and ancestry and because their births were attended to by midwives. > Press Release > Podcasts and Other Materials Locking Up Our Children: ACLU Issues Report on Unjust Detention of Youth in Massachusetts (5/12/2008) > Press Release > Boston Globe: Justice by the Numbers (6/1/08) > Boston Globe: Children Go to Jail, for Lack of Options (5/12/08) A widespread practice in Massachusetts of locking up youth accused of minor offenses and who pose little or no danger to their communities is unfair, threatens public safety and wastes public money, according to a report released in May 2008 by the ACLU and the ACLU of Massachusetts. The report documents the use of detention by state judges as a rehabilitative tool to frighten youth never convicted of wrongdoing. The report also addresses the woeful lack of placement availability in the state's child welfare and mental health systems that leave detention as the only viable option for youth who cannot safely be returned to their homes. Locking Up Our Children is a follow-up report to a 2003 report by the ACLU, which documented the disproportionate representation of youth of color in Massachusett's juvenile justice system. Lead plaintiff Milo Sheff at the time of the 1996 filing and in a recent photograph. Read the case profile >> New Agreement in Hartford Desegregation Case (4/4/2008) The ACLU, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Center for Children's Advocacy and cooperating attorneys have struck an agreement with the state of Connecticut to implement compliance with a longstanding order from the state Supreme Court to desegregate Hartford public schools. The agreement, the latest stage in the case of Sheff v. O'Neill, for the first time requires the state to create a detailed roadmap to follow in its effort to end the racial segregation faced by Hartford's minority schoolchildren. The settlement has been approved by the Connecticut legislature and awaits approval by the judge in the case. Read the ACLU press release >> Read The Hartford Courant's call to action >> SchooltoPrison.org If you are a legal advocate working on challenges to the school-to-prison pipeline, please visit SchooltoPrison.org, sponsored by the ACLU Racial Justice Program and several of our allies. Visit SchooltoPrison.org >> ACLU Sues Over Failed Privately-Run Alternative School In Atlanta (3/11/2008) The ACLU filed a class action lawsuit against the Atlanta Independent School System and Community Education Partners for violating students' constitutional right to an adequate public education. CEP is a for-profit corporation paid nearly $7 million a year by the city to run its alternative school, which is among the most dangerous and lowest performing schools in Georgia. More About Harris et al. v. Atlanta Independent School System >> > More About the Kids At Risk

ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging Asher's Effort To Eradicate Equal Opportunity (12/19/2008)
JEFFERSON CITY, MO – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri filed a lawsuit challenging the latest attempt by a political operative to rewrite Missouri's state Constitution and ban equal opportunity programs in the state.

Appeals Court Rebuffs Effort to End School Desegregation Programs (12/19/2008)
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Los Angeles Unified School District must continue to run desegregation programs that provide all children access to a quality education, a state court of appeal ruled today in a decision that agreed with the ACLU of Southern California's position that the key programs should stand.

Louisiana Has Highest Incarceration Rate In The World; ACLU Seeks Changes (12/11/2008)
NEW ORLEANS - Today the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a branch of the US Department of Justice, released figures showing that, as of December 31, 2007, nearly 2.3 million persons were incarcerated in US prisons and jails, giving the United States the largest incarcerated population in the world. Within the US, Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration, nearly five times that of the lowest state, Maine.

ACLU Secures Religious Freedom For Muslim Prisoners At Wyoming State Penitentiary (11/20/2008)
RAWLINS, WY – The American Civil Liberties Union has struck an agreement with officials at the Wyoming State Penitentiary that will allow Muslim prisoners to maintain their religious practices and beliefs while still being able to eat daily meals.

ACLU Report Reveals Arrests At Hartford-Area Schools On Rise (11/17/2008)
HARTFORD, CT – Police arrests of students at Hartford-area schools are on the rise, according to a new American Civil Liberties Union report released today, a trend that disproportionately impacts children of color.