News & Commentary

Over the last two legislative sessions, the ACLU-PA has been urging state legislators to reform Pennsylvania’s archaic and overly-punitive probation system. Although the probation system itself is complex, the changes needed to fix it are not. 

Our new report, Punishing Poverty: Cash Bail in Allegheny County, is an analysis of how cash bail drives an epidemic of pretrial detention in Allegheny County.

When it comes to addressing Pennsylvania’s mass incarceration crisis, this election year brings with it a true sense of urgency and a real chance to pave the way for meaningful reform.

Pennsylvania’s pending Marsy’s Law ballot question is unconstitutional because it combines many changes into a single amendment – what the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has called “logrolling.”

In 1972, Pennsylvania enacted the modern crimes code, succinctly categorizing all criminal behavior into 282 offenses. Since that time, the Legislature has made countless unnecessary changes and additions. By 2010, the criminal code contained 636 offenses. Today, there are more than 1,500.

The law clearly protects medical marijuana patients from being denied probation, which is considered a privilege in Pennsylvania. So threatening to revoke a person’s probation if they lawfully use medical marijuana under state law — which is what the Lebanon County court has done — violates the law.

In the weeks leading up to Allegheny County’s municipal primary elections in May, the ACLU of Pennsylvania partnered with a number of community groups for a candidate forum intended to give the public an opportunity to hear from District Attorney Stephen Zappala and challenger Turahn Jenkins.

The criminalization of marijuana has unnecessarily created a lot of harm, particularly to people of color. That statement may seem obvious. But it was the message that we felt compelled to hammer at an event we attended last week with a few dozen policymakers, students, researchers, scientists, and reporters in Pittsburgh.

Ten years after the state legislature mandated that the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing create a risk assessment tool to be used at sentencing, the commission finally voted on and passed a proposal in early September.