News & Commentary

We live in trying times, a time when it can be hard to bear your own weight, much less take on the weight of another. This is why the ACLU of Virginia is so grateful to all of the participants, members and organizers that came together on a rainy Saturday afternoon to address mass incarceration.

This week, the ACLU of Virginia and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Mr. Nicolas Reyes.

In a recent study, the ACLU-VA asks Governor Ralph Northam to sharply limit the use of solitary confinement. The ACLU report deems the practice is ‘overused’ in Virginia. The ACLU said reforms put in place by the state since 2011 are a “step forward” in reducing its use but don’t go far enough.

The findings of the ACLU-VA’s latest report, Silent Injustice: Solitary Confinement in Virginia, are at once startling and cursory to the real inhumanities people in solitary confinement face.

Even though you are presumed innocent in the eyes of the law, if you can’t afford cash bail, you will end up in jail for weeks, months, or, in some cases, years as you wait for your day in court.

Lawmakers, opinion leaders, and some in the media have characterized several proposals making their way through the Virginia legislature this year as welcome “criminal justice reform.” They are anything but.

Today, the ACLU of Virginia sent a letter to Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran to address some major concerns that we have regarding the so-called bipartisan compromise to raise the felony larceny threshold from $200 (the lowest in the nation) to $500 while putting those convicted on probabtion until they pay all of their restitutions. 

By David Smith Guest Writer

We will continue to work against each other on issues on which we don’t and can’t agree and will seek to bring others to those causes. We know others will do the same.