News & Commentary

Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit heard oral arguments about the rights of transgender inmates in Wisconsin prisons. The ACLU, the ACLU of Wisconsin and Lambda Legal sued the state on behalf of transgender inmates, some of whom had been receiving hormone treatment in Wisconsin prisons for years. “The district court correctly struck down a discriminatory law that denied transgender people, and no one else, crucial care for a serious medical condition,” said John Knight, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project. “We hope that the court of appeals affirms this ruling and recognizes that medical treatment decisions must be based on medical, rather than political, justifications.” In 2005, the state of Wisconsin passed a law that barred prison doctors from providing transgender inmates medically necessary hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery while in state custody. The court case got media mentions in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a blog of the Capitol Times and Common Dreams.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Wisconsin and the law firm Jenner and Block today filed papers seeking court approval of an agreement to settle a longstanding class-action lawsuit charging that grossly deficient medical and mental health care jeopardized the lives of female prisoners at the state’s largest women’s prison.

As the Governor’s Juvenile Corrections Review Committee considers how best to serve juvenile offenders in the future , the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin urges committee members to place the highest priority on the needs of youth in the system and to make decisions that will facilitate, rather than hinder, successful reentry into the community. The Committee is expected to decide on recommendations at a June 21 meeting.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Wednesday struck down a law that barred transgender people from receiving medical care while they are incarcerated. The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal challenged the law in January 2006 on behalf of transgender prisoners, some of whom had been receiving hormones in Wisconsin prisons for years prior to the passage of the law. The lawsuit charged that it is a violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection as well as the guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment to bar transgender inmates from access to individualized medical care. The legal groups based their challenge on federal case law that establishes that health care providers must determine proper treatment for all prison inmates. 

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Wednesday struck down a law that barred transgender people from receiving medical care while they are incarcerated. The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal challenged the law in January 2006 on behalf of transgender prisoners, some of whom had been receiving hormones in Wisconsin prisons for years prior to the passage of the law.

The ACLU established its National Prison Project in 1972 and is the only national litigation program on behalf of prisoners. The ACLU continues to fight unconstitutional conditions and the "lock 'em up" mentality that prevails in the legislatures. The action on behalf of prisoners’ rights include addressing conditions of confinement, immigrant detention, lack of physical and mental health care, over-incarceration (including skyrocketing incarceration rates, the impact of truth-in-sentencing and racial disparities), restriction of many constitutional rights (including freedom of religion), and the needs of women in prison.

In the United States, no other criminal justice policies show more racially disparate impacts than that of drug law enforcement. Since the “war on drugs” began, efforts to end punitive drug policies that cause the widespread violation of constitutional and human rights has been needed to address the root cause of unprecedented levels of incarceration. Nationally, the ACLU works on marijuana law reform, the disparate impact of crack versus cocaine sentencing disparities, drug testing laws, and search and seizure policies.

The death penalty is the ultimate denial of civil liberties. To date, 135 inmates were found to be innocent and released from death row. The ACLU Capital Punishment Project is fighting for the end of the death penalty by supporting moratorium and repeal movements through public education and advocacy. We are engaged in systemic reform of the death penalty process, and case-specific litigation highlighting some of its fundamental flaws.

A federal judge denied a request by Wisconsin state officials to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Wisconsin and the law firm of Jenner & Block charging that grossly deficient health care and mental health treatment jeopardizes the lives of women prisoners at a state prison.