Many employers require job applicants to disclose past convictions on their job applications.  Although this information may sometimes be relevant to a job qualification, some employers refuse to even consider an applicant with a felony conviction even if the offense took place in the distant past and is not relevant to job performance.  Such a practice can have particularly devastating consequences for communities of color, who are overrepresented in the criminal justice system as a result of racial profiling, the misguided War on Drugs, and other biases. 

Constitutional protections should not be guaranteed to only those who can financially afford them. And yet there is an ongoing crisis in Michigan's indigent defense system for those too poor to afford fair and just legal representation.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is lauding a state Supreme Court proposal that could end unconstitutional "pay-or-stay" sentencing practices in courtrooms around the state.

When Charlie Sheen publicly announced that he is a person living with HIV, I was struck by two things: Sheen shared that, since his diagnosis four years ago, he has been on antiretroviral medications and his viral load is currently undetectable (meaning there are so few copies of the HIV virus in his blood that tests cannot register it).

ACLU at the Michigan Capitol – November 2, 2015

Bipartisanship is flourishing lately. Not so much among our elected officials – unsurprising given that legislative transformation traditionally lags behind public opinion -- but rather among some significant advocacy groups in some very critical areas of public policy, most notably criminal justice reform and citizen privacy in the age of high-tech digital surveillance. 

FOR IMMEDIATE USE

October 30, 2015

CONTACT: Darrell Dawsey, ACLU of Michigan, 313-578-6831; ddawsey@aclumich.org

DETROIT—As part of the ACLU of Michigan’s ongoing effort to end unconstitutional debtors’ prisons in Michigan, attorneys for the organization are slated to appear in Macomb County Circuit Court on Monday morning to urge the court to stop an Eastpointe judge from continuing to jail poor defendants for their inability to pay fines.

David Stojcevski died, gasping for breath, naked on the cement floor of his cell at the Macomb County Jail, while his jailors watched the life ebb out of him.  24-hour camera surveillance captured Mr. Stojcevski excruciatingly long death. The FBI is investigating. But even without the FBI report, we know that something went terribly wrong.

DETROIT—Concerned over potential civil-rights violations in the grisly death of Macomb County Jail inmate David Stojcevski, the ACLU of Michigan in a letter today urged US Department of Justice officials to investigate not only the fatality but also the unconstitutional “pay-or-stay” sentencing practices that landed Stojcevski in jail in the first place.