News & Commentary

With an eye towards ending punitive drug policies that have made the United States the world’s largest incarcerator and cost taxpayers billions of dollars a year, Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) on Friday introduced legislation to reduce the penalty for Californians who possess small amounts of drugs for their own personal use. The bill, SB 1506, co-sponsored by the ACLU of California, Drug Policy Alliance, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the California NAACP, changes the penalty for the simple possession of drugs under state law from a felony, which is punishable by up to three years behind bars, to a misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to one year behind bars. The reform would help alleviate overcrowding in state prisons and county jails and save the state millions of dollars annually.

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Complaint Alleges High-Level Staff Knew Gangs of Deputies Beat Inmates and Condoned Cover-Ups

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) today withdrew a proposed regulation that would allow government agencies to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests with false statements that the documents sought do not exist, when, in fact, they do. Providing such false denials has apparently been a practice at DOJ for decades, which was most recently revealed in a FOIA lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU/SC) on behalf of a number of Southern California Muslim individuals and organizations.

Yesterday the Los Angeles School Police Department unveiled protocols intended to reduce the number of daytime curfew tickets written to students. The revised procedures are a result of collaboration and discussions between Public Counsel, the Community Rights Campaign, the ACLU of Southern California, Children’s Defense Fund, CADRE, and Youth Justice Coalition — groups that work to keep students in school — and Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD) leaders.

In 1994, Lisa Simpson -- daughter of Homer, sister of Bart -- posed the question that continues to plague law enforcement: "If you're the police, who will police the police?" Homer answered, "I dunno; Coast Guard?" Amidst allegations of deputy-on-inmate abuse at LA County jails, LA County Sheriff Lee Baca's answer was inexplicably worse than Homer's: "We police ourselves."