News & Commentary

Across Indiana, inmates are being subjected to overcrowded jail cells and inhumane living conditions. Many are forced to sleep on cell floors, exposed to extremely dirty conditions with insects and black mold. Even worse, when prisons and jails are over capacity, the needs of prisoners with medical and mental health needs are often overlooked and unmet.

An Indiana county has taken a retroactive step, approving a pay-to-stay policy that will likely send people who are incarcerated hurling back into the criminal justice system by loading them with debt. Pay-to-stay policies involve inmate fees charged by jails and prisons while people are incarcerated, locking people in cycles of imprisonment and debt. Not only are these pay-to-stay programs fiscally impractical, they perpetuate mass incarceration.

The mass incarceration crisis, in Indiana and across the country, has taken a huge toll on families and communities, and has wasted trillions of taxpayer dollars. The current system has failed, disproportionately effecting communities of color. But reformers cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach to ending mass incarceration. Legislative, policing and prosecutorial reform must be specific to combatting these disparities.

Young people should remain in the juvenile justice system, regardless of their crimes. Senate Bill 279 would automatically waive juvenile court jurisdiction over children 12 years and older who have been accused of attempted murder or murder, sending children to the adult court and prison systems.

Civic Theatre is bringing Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill A Mockingbird to the stage February 8-23, 2019. In partnership with the ACLU of Indiana, Civic will host over 3,500 middle and high school students at eight matinees of the play, providing an educational resource guide, along with Guest Experts, to discuss topical issues from the play, relevant in today’s society.

The ACLU of Indiana is representing two prisoners at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, and was recently granted  a preliminary injunction concerning the Indiana Department of Correction (DOC) facilities' policy that all incoming correspondence to prisoners must be in a plain white envelope and the correspondence must be on originally purchased, plain white, lined paper. The policy, Executive Directive #18-34, severely restricts the type of non-legal mail that can be sent to prisoners.

James Wierciak is a Hamilton County, Ind. resident who has been prescribed pain medications for nearly two decades to manage the chronic pain caused by a variety of health problems. But in late 2013, the Indiana Medical Licensing Board adopted new rules requiring people like James who receive certain levels of common pain medications from their physicians to sign a treatment agreement that mandates annual drug testing.

Daniel Littlepage, a Native American, is a prisoner confined at the Miami Correctional Facility located in Bunker Hill, Indiana. His religion requires him, among other things, to pray with others in a Sacred Circle. John Walker Lindh, a prisoner at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Ind., practices Islam, which requires him to participate in group prayer. Paul Veal, a prisoner at the Pendleton Correctional Facility, is a practicing African Hebrew Israelite, a religion which mandates communal worship and study as a necessary component of creating a lifestyle that complies with the desires and commandments of God.

Race weekend in Indianapolis is full of special traditions for the hundreds of thousands of spectators who gather in Speedway, Ind. It also is a lucrative weekend for taxi drivers, who shuttle people to and from the crowded Speedway track. However, in May 2013, as many as 80 cab drivers had their licenses seized on race day, according to the Speedway Police Department