Research & Publications

When two Black men were arrested at a Starbucks coffee shop in Philadelphia in April, it came as no surprise to those of us at the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Infuriating, sure. But not surprising.

Our country has to do better in ending mass incarceration and the racial disparities that plague the criminal justice system.

In August, we were all horrified by the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white supremacists were on the march, spewing their vile worldview and motivating one of their kind to drive a car into a crowd of counter-protestors, killing Heather Heyer.

In some ways, our country changed on November 8, 2016. The United States elected a leader who, by all measures, is hostile to the basic foundations and principles that we stand for.

Originally published in November 2013, Beyond Zero Tolerance was well-received in Pennsylvania and beyond. We have expanded and updated the report for 2015.

A robust dialogue has risen up about police practices—stop-and-frisk, broken windows, the biased implementation of the War on Drugs—which have led to both unnecessary deaths and, thankfully, to the “social death” of mass incarceration.