{"id":46665,"date":"2022-02-15T18:17:47","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T23:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/race-and-criminal-justice"},"modified":"2025-06-17T17:07:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T21:07:24","slug":"race-and-criminal-justice","status":"publish","type":"issue","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-criminal-justice","title":{"rendered":"Race and Criminal Justice"},"parent":46673,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-46665","issue","type-issue","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"featured-image":210880,"intro":"The ACLU works to reduce the number of people incarcerated, surveilled and criminalized by law enforcement and in the courts, and aims to address the root causes of crime, such as poverty and lack of opportunity.","what-you-need-to-know":[{"highlighted":"5X","description":"Black people in the United States are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly five times the rate of white Americans."},{"highlighted":"1 in 81","description":"Nationally, one in 81 Black adults in the U.S. is serving time in state prison. "},{"highlighted":"1.3X","description":"Latine individuals are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate that is 1.3 times the incarceration rate of whites."}],"promo":{"description":"","button":"","url":""},"faq":{"description":"","faq-items":[{"title":"What is the War on Drugs?","content":"President Richard Nixon declared a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/race-war-drugs\">\u201cwar on drugs\u201d<\/a> in 1971. By the 1980s, the link between minorities, drugs, and crime was firmly cemented in American rhetoric. Media hysteria about an unsubstantiated crack epidemic among Black communities prompted Congress to pass draconian mandatory minimum sentencing laws against crack cocaine. The war on drugs has sent millions of people to prison for low-level offenses, and seriously eroded our civil liberties and civil rights while costing taxpayers billions of dollars a year, with nothing to show for it except our status as the world\u2019s largest incarcerator."},{"title":"Is there institutional racism in marijuana arrests?","content":"On average, a Black person is 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates. In every state, and in over 96 percent of the counties examined in our 2020 analysis, Black people were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/press-releases\/new-aclu-report-despite-marijuana-legalization-black-people-still-almost-four-times\">much more likely to be arrested<\/a> than white people for marijuana possession. Overall, these disparities have not improved. In 10 states, Black people were more than five times more likely to be arrested."},{"title":"How is police violence a form of institutional racism?","content":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/criminal-law-reform\/state-and-local-governments-must-take-responsibility-for-police-violence\">Police violence<\/a> stems from this country\u2019s history of using police to oppress marginalized people. American policing has never been a neutral institution. It perpetuates racism and oppression by design. From \u201cslave patrols\u201d that used terror and torture against enslaved Black people engaged in uprisings, to armed militia that enforced Black Codes and Jim Crow, to police that subverted labor unions to benefit political elites in the 19th century, policing has always been tied to suppression, surveillance, and control."}]},"featured-stories":[{"image":132718,"title":"State and Local Governments Must Take Responsibility for Police Violence ","content-type":"news_and_commentary","last-updated":null,"description":"It shouldn\u2019t take a federal investigation to address violent and harmful practices.","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/criminal-law-reform\/state-and-local-governments-must-take-responsibility-for-police-violence"}],"latest-stories":[{"image":104798,"title":"How Officials in Georgia are Suppressing Political Protest as \u2018Domestic Terrorism\u2019","type":"news_and_commentary","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/national-security\/how-officials-in-georgia-are-suppressing-political-protest-as-domestic-terrorism"},{"image":133216,"title":"10 Years of #BlackLivesMatter: Progress and Backlash","type":"podcast","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/podcast\/blacklivesmatter-progress-and-backlash"},{"image":30663,"title":"A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform","type":"news_and_commentary","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/criminal-law-reform\/a-tale-of-two-countries-racially-targeted-arrests-in-the-era-of-marijuana-reform?initms_aff=nat&initms_chan=web&utm_medium=web&initms=200420_420_marijuanareport_vanity&utm_source=earned&utm_campaign=420&utm_content=200420_criminallaw_marijuanareport_vanity&ms_aff=nat&ms_chan=web&ms=200420_420_marijuanareport_vanity&redirect=marijuana"}],"whats-at-stake":{"title":"What's at Stake","description":"There are significant racial disparities in sentencing decisions in the United States. Sentences imposed on Black males in the federal system are nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/documents\/aclu-submission-racial-disparities-sentencing-unsr-minority-issues\">20 percent longer <\/a>than those imposed on white males convicted of similar crimes. Black and Latine defendants sentenced in state and federal courts face significantly greater odds of incarceration than similarly situated white defendants and receive longer sentences than their white counterparts in some jurisdictions.\r\n\r\nThese racial disparities are not unintentional. From the beginning, the war on drugs has decimated the Black community and communities of color, a result of sentencing disparities and selective enforcement of drug laws. Today, there are more Black people under the control of prison and corrections departments than were ever enslaved by this country.\r\n\r\nThese racial disparities result from disparate treatment of Black and Brown people at every stage of the criminal legal system, including stops and searches, arrests, prosecutions and plea negotiations, trials, sentencing, parole, and probation revocation decisions. Race matters at all phases and aspects of the criminal process, including the quality of representation, the charging phase, and the availability of plea agreements."},"actions":"","drupal-id":240,"is_hidden_issue":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>American Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ACLU works to reduce the number of people incarcerated, surveilled and criminalized by law enforcement and in the courts, and aims to address the root causes of crime, such as poverty and lack of opportunity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Race and Criminal Justice | American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ACLU works to reduce the number of people incarcerated, surveilled and criminalized by law enforcement and in the courts, and aims to address the root causes of crime, such as poverty and lack of opportunity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-criminal-justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-17T21:07:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-criminal-justice\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-criminal-justice\",\"name\":\"Race and Criminal Justice | American Civil Liberties Union\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-15T23:17:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-17T21:07:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"The ACLU works to reduce the number of people incarcerated, surveilled and criminalized by law enforcement and in the courts, and aims to address the root causes of crime, such as poverty and lack of opportunity.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-criminal-justice\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"The ACLU works to reduce the number of people incarcerated, surveilled and criminalized by law enforcement and in the courts, and aims to address the root causes of crime, such as poverty and lack of opportunity.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Race and Criminal Justice | American Civil Liberties Union","og_description":"The ACLU works to reduce the number of people incarcerated, surveilled and criminalized by law enforcement and in the courts, and aims to address the root causes of crime, such as poverty and lack of opportunity.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-criminal-justice","og_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","article_modified_time":"2025-06-17T21:07:24+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@aclu","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-criminal-justice","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-criminal-justice","name":"Race and Criminal Justice | American Civil Liberties Union","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-02-15T23:17:47+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-17T21:07:24+00:00","description":"The ACLU works to reduce the number of people incarcerated, surveilled and criminalized by law enforcement and in the courts, and aims to address the root causes of crime, such as poverty and lack of opportunity.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/race-and-criminal-justice"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/","name":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.","inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210883,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46665\/revisions\/210883"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}