News & Commentary

We, along with the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, Root & Rebound, Wyche, P.A., and Disability Rights South Carolina (formerly known as Protection and Advocacy for People with Disabilities, Inc.) today announced a settlement with Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright and Jail Administrator Allen Freeman in a federal lawsuit that challenged the failure of the Spartanburg County Detention Center to protect those in its care from COVID-19.

For half a century South Carolina has embraced draconian sentencing laws that have destroyed lives and communities and contributed to the explosive growth of both jail and prison populations. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Today Charleston-area advocates, the Justice for All Coalition, sent a memo to Charleston County leaders outlining a series of reforms that each entity must take to make Charleston County safer and more just for all.

Today a SC Senate Medical Affairs Sub-Committee heard some testomony (they cut off testimony before we could all speak) on S.811, a bill that would give medical practitioners, health care institutions, and health care providers a license to discriminate in South Carolina. If bills were named for their logical outcome, this bill would be called the South Carolina Healthcare Denial Act.

Fifty years ago today, the U.S. government launched a seemingly endless war on its people. The “war on drugs” has funneled hundreds of billions of dollars into policing and prisons. It has helped turn America into the incarceration capital of the world and has harmed countless people.

Jamal Sutherland, George Floyd, and Walter Scott should be alive today. We know their names despite the system’s best efforts to cover up or hide the truth. We know their names because their killings at the hands of law enforcement were caught on tape.

Want to learn more about our work to protect our basic rights and liberties at the legislature? Read our summary of the legislation that the ACLU of South Carolina engaged on during this session.

ACLU Announces Partial Victory in Related Litigation after Lead Plaintiff Granted Exemption and Governor Shifts Position

Charleston activist groups, including the ACLU of South Carolina, Brothers and Sisters Improving Communities (BASIC), Charleston Immigrant Coalition, Black Liberation Fund, Charleston Activist Network, Charleston BLM, Black Voters Matter, and Lowcountry Action Committee, have issued the following demands following the death of Jamal Sutherland at the Al Cannon Detention Center