Criminal Justice Reform

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The ACLU of Mississippi works to promote criminal justice reform aimed at reducing Mississippi’s prison population and protecting the inherent and constitutionally guaranteed rights of the accused, defendants, incarcerated persons, and formerly incarcerated persons.

We are working on:

• Addressing systemic practices of police misconduct,

• Reducing over-incarceration through bail reform,

• Exposing and challenging debtors’ prisons, convict leasing, and modern-day slavery and sharecropping,

• Advocating for transparency and accountability in law enforcement,

• Supporting restorative justice,

• Advancing alternatives to policing, and

• Advocating for effective reentry policies and programs for returning persons.

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MOBILE JUSTICE 2.0

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2023 Legislative Priorities

News & Commentary
Hold Police Accountable.

How Lexington Can Improve the City's Discriminatory Policing Practicies

Firing the Chief of Police is not enough. Lexington residents are asking the Board of Aldermen to pass a list of ordinances to improve police interactions and minimize discriminatory enforcement in the small town.
Court Case
Apr 22, 2021

Jones v. Mississippi (amicus brief)

The ACLU of Mississippi joined an amicus brief in opposition to a recent Mississippi state court decision that contradicted decisions made by the United States Supreme Court.
Court Case
Nov 19, 2019

Hopkins v. Hosemann (amicus brief)

The ACLU of Mississippi, along with the NAACP, filed an amicus brief in support of Plaintiffs-Appellees Cross-Appellants’ contention that the lifetime disenfranchisement of felons in Mississippi pursuant to Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution violates the Eighth Amendment’s....
Court Case
May 14, 2020

Waddell v. Taylor

The ACLU of Mississippi, along with the Mississippi Center for Justice, Hogan Lovells law firm, and attorney Mark Whitburn of Austin, Texas, filed a class-action lawsuit against two of Mississippi’s largest prisons for their inadequate response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Court Case
Oct 21, 2015

Kennedy v. City of Biloxi

In the latest pushback against the national scourge of debtors' prisons, on October 21, 2015, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit challenging the illegal arrest and jailing of poor people in Biloxi, Mississippi, without a hearing or representation by counsel. Victims are...