WBEZ | aclu

ACLU finds racial disparities in Illinois pot arrests

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:01:00 -0500

Leaders of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois say one way to address racial disparities in marijuana arrests is to stop making them.

A new report from the civil rights group calls for the legalization of marijuana. The study found that African Americans in Illinois are almost eight times more likely than whites to be arrested for pot possession.

Ed Yohnka, director of public policy for the ACLU of Illinois, says whites and blacks use pot at about the same rate, but enforcement focuses on African Americans.

“We see this in the city of Chicago, we see it in other areas, that … where the enforcement is targeted is at people of color. And it results in this grossly disparate rate of arrest,” Yohnka said.

In an emailed statement, a spokesman for the Chicago police Department said police officers enforce laws in the interest of public safety and without regard to race.

According to the ACLU report, Illinois has the fourth highest rate of race disparity in marijuana arrests in the country.

Yohnka says that disparity “results in really tragic outcomes in … people’s lives,” because of court costs and the stigma of a criminal record. It cost the state about $221 million to enforce marijuana laws in 2010, according to the report.

“This war on marijuana … is an abject failure,” Yohnka said.

In its report the ACLU recommends that pot be legal for anyone over 21, and be licensed, taxed and regulated like any other product. The group also suggests that tax revenue from marijuana sales could be earmarked for substance-abuse prevention, among other things.Yohnka says the public wants marijuana to be legalized and that elected officials are lagging behind popular opinion.

Despite that, marijuana arrests are trending up, not down, in Illinois and throughout the country.

Illinois had 12,406 more pot arrests in 2010 than it did in 2001, according to the report.

The results of the study didn't come as a big shock to Juliana Stratton, but she says she was surprised to see that Cook County had the most marijuana possession arrests in the country.

Stratton, who heads the Cook County Judicial Advisory Council, says the report confirms the importance of the work being done by Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle to try and cut down on the number of marijuana arrests in the county.

She says more money and energy should be diverted away from law enforcement and toward treatment and prevention. In the coming months, she says the county will be unveiling programs that will divert minor drug offenders away from jail and toward rehabilitation.

As for Cook County's high number of pot arrests, Stratton says part of the reason could be the Chicago Police Department's focus on quality-of-life policing and the drying up of state funds for drug treatment.

Stratton says CPD's policy of arresting minor offenders as part of the "broken windows theory" of policing, runs counter to the county president's aim of decreasing the population of the Cook County Jail.

Illinois state Sen. Mattie Hunter, who heads the Illinois Disproportionate Justice Impact Study Commission, also said she was not surprised by the ACLU’s findings. She says the report echoes what she and her colleagues have found in years studying racial inequality throughout the state.

But Hunter says the problem won’t go away until racism is eradicated from the justice system.

Hunter does not support the legalization of marijuana.

Cook County led the nation in marijuana possession arrests in 2010 with 33,000, or 91 per day, according to the ACLU report.

Illinois prison health care lawsuit getting boost from ACLU

Fri, 31 May 2013 05:00:00 -0500

Update: The Illinois Department of Corrections and attorneys for plaintiffs say they have a settlement conference scheduled for late June. The date for that settlement conference was set several weeks ago.

A lawsuit over health care in prisons in Illinois is getting a boost from the American Civil Liberties Union. The federal class action lawsuit charges the Department of Corrections and Wexford Health Sources, a private healthcare company, with providing wholly inadequate health care to inmates.

The suit was filed by Alan Mills who runs the Uptown People’s Law Center, which focuses on prison issues. Mills says the ACLU is joining the case and brings lots of experience to the table in civil rights and class action cases.

His own group, Mills says, is a very small operation.

"We have lots of expertise in the way the prisons work," he said, "but don’t have the horses to do this alone, so I think everybody brings to the table here some really good skills which will allow us to bring this case through to a verdict in the plaintiff’s favor.”

Mills says, so far, Wexford, the private health care company with a contract to care for the inmates, and the Department of Corrections have refused to sit down and discuss a possible settlement. Wexford and the Department of Corrections did not immediately have a comment on the lawsuit.

ACLU sues Chicago over police deployment practices

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:24:00 -0500

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois is suing the City of Chicago, alleging unequal police deployment to minority neighborhoods.

The lawsuit filed Thursday claims the number of police in predominantly African American and Hispanic communities is disproportionately low as measured by the number of emergency calls made in those neighborhoods. As a result, the ACLU said those areas experience slower response to 911 calls than that of predominantly white neighborhoods.

ACLU legal director Harvey Grossman said the organization has long been stonewalled by the city in its efforts to gather police deployment statistics. He cited recent news reports from the Sun-Times and the Chicago News Cooperative that measured emergency response times in some city neighborhoods as the basis for the suit. The ACLU wants the city to end its current method of police deployment and submit "a plan that will guarantee that all neighborhoods receive equal emergency services."

"Tell the city what you're doing and why you're doing it," said Grossman. "Put the numbers out there. Tell us why you're making the decisions, and let us all assess the equality and fairness of it."

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel defended the city's police deployment at a press conference on Thursday. He said the city is still using crime statistics to better determine where to deploy police officers.

The police department did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

Illinois abortion notification law back in trial court

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:15:00 -0500

The Illinois Appellate Court has sent a never-enforced law requiring a girl's guardians to be notified before she has an abortion back to the circuit court for trial.

The ruling Friday reverses a decision by the Cook County Circuit Court, which had lifted a restraining order on the law but allowed time for appeals before it could be enforced.

The law requires doctors to notify the guardians of a girl 18 years old or younger 48 hours before the girl gets an abortion. Girls can bypass parental notification by going to a judge.

Approved by the Illinois General Assembly in 1995, the Parental Notice of Abortion Act has never taken effect because of court challenges. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois sued the state over the measure. They argue it is unconstitutional and could put young girls at risk.

"When a teen can't tell a parent, it is for a very good reason--ranging from validated concerns about physical abuse or emotional abuse, and in some cases actually being evicted from the family home," said Colleen Connell, executive director of the Illinois ACLU.

Tom Brejcha, president of the Thomas More Society, disagrees with both the ACLU's arguments. He said the legal system provides assistance to help girls who fear repercussions from their parents or guardians.

"There is the provision for a confidential, expedited bypass hearing where any young woman who feels she's in danger can go right to court and very quickly get before a judge and explain the situation to a judge," Brejcha said.

The appellate court's ruling allows young girls to get abortions without parental notification until the case is decided.

Tony Arnold and Lauren Chooljian contributed reporting.

ACLU: Indiana’s law banning funds to Planned Parenthood ‘counter-productive’

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:34:00 -0500

The head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana says the new Hoosier law that bars funds going to Planned Parenthood may actually lead to more unwanted pregnancies.

Ken Falk submitted the ACLU’s final written arguments this week in its case to get $1.2 million in federal funding restored to its client, Planned Parenthood of Indiana.

“If everyone agrees that abortion is not a good thing, then doesn’t it make sense to make it easy and to encourage women to get family planning services?” Falk told WBEZ Wednesday. “At some point, this is extremely counter-productive, that it is being done here to strip these thousands of woman of their provider of choice.”

Falk is also trying to use Indiana’s own legal opinions against itself. Prior to the law’s passage this spring, Indiana lawmakers received word from the Indiana Legislative Services Agency that the legislation would violate federal guidelines. Federal policy allows eligible Medicaid participants to obtain medical services from providers of their choice.

The head of the federal government’s Medicaid program sent a letter along those lines to Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration. The letter stated that Indiana’s law is illegal and the state could face penalties if it did not restore Planned Parenthood’s funding.

Some 22,000 low-income Hoosier women depend on Medicaid for general and family-planning care. They are affected by Indiana’s new law, which bans Medicaid and other funding to any agency that performs abortions. The law also bars abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy.

Falk says the measure is misguided, because federal law already bans Medicaid money being spent on abortions. Planned Parenthood uses Medicaid money to provide family planning and other health services that are not related to abortion.

The Indiana Attorney General’s office is defending the law before U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, who presides in Indianapolis. The state of Indiana contends the court fight should be between the federal government and the state, and should not involve Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. Pratt is expected to rule on the ACLU’s injunction request by July 1st.

Falk says if funding isn’t restored soon, Planned Parenthood may lay off employees. So far, the organization has stayed afloat because private donors around the country have contributed more than $100,000.

Indiana Gov. Mich Daniels says he supports the law since most Hoosiers oppose abortion.

Building Commission approves adding cameras to downtown Chicago

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:36:00 -0500

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants more security cameras downtown. At a meeting of the Public Building Commission, members approved a measure adding cameras.

The American Civil Liberties Union has long said Chicagoans are some of the most video-taped people in the country. Adam Schwartz, an attorney with the ACLU, said he's not opposed to increasing security at those buildings, but having too many cameras around the city is a privacy concern.

"What we think is that the cameras should not be going up everywhere; that there might be some particular locations where the cameras are more appropriate," he said.

The ACLU estimates there are 10,000 cameras around Chicago.

A spokesman for the Board of Trade said it supports the mayor's efforts to increase safety in the city.

Laptop seizure at O'Hare, subject of ACLU lawsuit

Fri, 13 May 2011 21:09:00 -0500

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security in relation to a laptop seizure at O'Hare International Airport.

The lawsuit is on behalf of individual David House, who supports the release of US Army Private Bradley Manning. Manning's accused of leaking a graphic video to Wikileaks that shows US soldiers apparently killing Iraqis and civilians, including Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen.

When House was re-entering the US from a vacation in Mexico this past November, he says customs officials, members of the Department for Homeland Security, and an FBI agent questioned him and seized all of his electronics. The Boston-based computer scientist says he did not receive his laptop back for 45 days.

House said, "The loss of the computer was the most devastating thing about it. I had just graduated from college, just in my first job in the workforce. And well if if the US government was trying to disrupt my activities, they definitely succeeded in doing so. It took me a long time to recover from that."

House says this seizure is just part of a broader government campaign of intimidation against people who support Bradley Manning. He alleges a similar electronics seizure event happened to another Manning supporter traveling between the US and Canada.

The ACLU lawsuit on House's behalf contests his 1st and 4th amendment rights were violated.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.

In fiscally conservative times, are women's services in jeopardy?

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:15:00 -0600

As the state and federal governments rework their budgets, legislators tack on proposed spending cuts. So who bears the brunt of fiscally conservative times? Some say women do.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a measure that would eliminate all federal funding for Planned Parenthood. An estimated one in five women will visit a Planned Parenthood clinic in their lifetime.

Meanwhile, here in Illinois, the American Civil Liberties Union is fighting newly-proposed legislation it believes would restrict women’s access to healthcare. Executive Director of the ACLU of Illinois Colleen Connell talked to Eight Forty-Eight about the fight to fund women's healthcare. She's also the former director of its Reproductive Rights Project.

The impact of surveillance cameras on our civil rights

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:19:00 -0600

Chicago's next mayor will have to tackle a myriad of issues including public safety and security. In recent years the city has increasingly turned to one security tool - surveillance cameras. Proponents like the mayor and Office of Emergency Management and Communications tout their effectiveness and would like to see more on Chicago’s streets. But the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois thinks they are an unregulated intrusion on our privacy.

Tuesday the ACLU will ask City Council to adopt a moratorium on installing new surveillance cameras in Chicago. That call comes on the heels of the first large-scale, independent study of Chicago’s cameras commissioned by the ACLU. Adam Schwartz is an attorney for the ACLU and he joined Eight Forty-Eight to discuss the findings of the report.

Eight Forty-Eight invited Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications to discuss the findings of the ACLU study but did not receive a response.

Music Button: Zero One, "Lifeforce", from the CD Ozone, (Waveform)

ACLU report details city's use of cameras around Chicago

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:03:00 -0600

A leading civil rights group wants Chicago to stop expanding its network of thousands of cameras covering the city due to privacy issues, First Amendment concerns and a lack of regulation, according to a report released Tuesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois called for a full review of the cameras, which number at least 10,000 and are at locations from skyscrapers to utility poles, saying city officials won't release basic information like the exact number, cost and any incidents of misuse.

Those concerns, along with city officials' plans for expansion, put Chicago a step closer to a Big Brother invasion of privacy, the ACLU alleged.

"Chicago's camera network invades the freedom to be anonymous in public places, a key aspect of the fundamental American right to be left alone," the report states. "Each of us then will wonder whether the government is watching and recording us when we walk into a psychiatrist's office, a reproductive health care center, a political meeting, a theater performance, or a book store."

The system, which started less than a decade ago, has been called the most extensive and integrated camera network of any U.S. city by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Chicago police have praised the cameras' use and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has even called for cameras to be installed on every city corner to help fight crime.

Chicago police and Daley have lauded the cameras and defended their use, saying they help authorities respond more quickly and have led to more than 4,000 arrests. Daley's office didn't respond to requests for comment about the report.

The network includes private cameras and those installed by city agencies, like the Chicago Transit Authority. While many of the cameras are visible like those with flashing blue lights affixed to street poles countless others are unmarked. City officials have been tight-lipped about how many cameras Chicago has in place, but no one has disputed that there are at least 10,000, including more than 4,000 installed by Chicago Public Schools and at least 1,000 at O'Hare International Airport.

In its report, the ACLU outlined three specific technologies that exceed the powers of ordinary human observation and increase the government's power to watch the public: zoom, facial recognition capacity and automatic tracking.

"Chicago's growing camera network is part of an expanding culture of surveillance in America. Combined with other government surveillance technologies, cameras can turn our lives into open books for government scrutiny," the report says. "Chicago's camera network chills and deters lawful expressive activities protected by the First Amendment, like attending a political demonstration in the public way."

ACLU officials said the city declined to give the group information on the cameras, including a tour of its operation center, statistics on crime and cost estimates. According to the report, surrounding communities have paid hefty sums for cameras; suburban Cicero has 30 cameras which cost $580,000.

The group said that money could be better spent on adding more police officers to Chicago streets, among other things. It added that there has been little research showing the cameras deter crime.

In addition to the moratorium, the agency recommended more public input, regular audits, rules and regulation on who can view the images, public notice before installing a camera and disclosure of any abuse. The report cites cases in other cities where "male camera operators have ogled women."

Public complaints about the cameras haven't been widespread and are generally limited to those who get caught for a minor offense or if the cameras fail to record a violent attack.

Authorities say cameras played a prominent role in several high-profile cases. Footage from a city bus camera helped persuade a suspected gang member to plead guilty to shooting a 16-year-old high school student in 2007. Cameras helped police determine that the 2009 death of a school board president was a suicide.

Chicago police spokeswoman Lt. Maureen Biggane said she had not seen the ACLU report.

"The Chicago Police Department is committed to safeguarding the civil liberties of city residents and visitors alike," she said in a statement. "Public safety is a responsibility of paramount importance and we are fully committed to protecting the public from crime, and upholding the constitutional rights of all."