News & Commentary

In a report released on February 5, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that conditions at Broad River Road Complex, the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice’s long-term juvenile incarceration facility, violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by placing children in its custody in serious harm by failing to guarantee their general safety and frequently abusing isolation. We’ve been sounding the alarm on these issues since 2015 when we first requested an investigation after hearing numerous reports of children being subjected to the horrific practice of punitive, prolonged solitary confinement. SCDJJ’s mission is to “protect the public and reclaim juveniles through prevention, community programs, education, and rehabilitation services in the least restrictive environment.” Instead, much like their adult counterparts, incarcerated children in South Carolina are being held in violent, inhumane conditions which place them at acute risk for permanent physical and psychological damage. 

 

In 2006, George Alvarez was charged with assaulting a prison guard while awaiting trial on public intoxication. He knew he didn’t do it — the guards actually jumped him — but the ten year mandatory minimum sentence at trial scared him so much that he pled guilty. Little did he know that the government had a video proving his innocence, but they buried it long enough for prosecutors to extract the plea first. George spent almost four years behind bars fighting for his innocence before finally being exonerated.

Neema Singh Guliani, Former Senior Legislative Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union

Sonia Gill, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU

The ACLU and the ACLU of Tennessee filed a lawsuit against the Smith County School System for violating the separation of church and state on Monday. According to the lawsuit, four students who are atheists have had to contend with school officials promoting Christianity through official prayers, Bible distributions, religious posters, and even a giant cross painted in one of the school’s athletic facilities.

Lea Allison is a 30-year-old Alamance County resident and mother to a 6-year-old daughter. She has been living with relatives because she cannot afford to live on her own, but was about to start a new job that she hoped would provide her and her daughter with financial stability.

Emily Bellamy is a single mother living in South Carolina earning low wages as a daycare worker. Emily strives for a better life for her young children and, in the past, has been able to earn more money cleaning vacation condominiums or working as a home health aide for the elderly. But Emily no longer has access to those opportunities because her driver’s license is suspended for unpaid traffic tickets that she cannot afford to pay.

My name is Kimberly Haven. I am an activist, an advocate, and I have also been referred to as the “tampon queen.” I got this moniker because, while I was incarcerated, I learned how to make my own tampons out of the subpar menstrual products I was “given” while incarcerated.