Publications

The detention of immigrants is inherently a violation of reproductive justice, as it denies people their bodily autonomy and human rights. Barriers to Reproductive Health While Detained seeks to promote awareness of these problems among the legal and medical providers working with detained people, and to provide ready access to some of the relevant legal standards. Read More

Today, Native American students throughout California continue to face disproportionately higher rates of exclusionary discipline, chronic absenteeism, and lower academic outcomes than their nonIndigenous peers. In Humboldt County, home to nearly twenty times more Indigenous students than the statewide average, these disparities are egregious. Read More

Together, we are achieving important victories against secret and dangerous surveillance. We are raising awareness of how surveillance technology like drones, stingrays, and facial recognition exacerbate discriminatory policing, suppress dissent, and facilitate harm to immigrants and people of color. We are building the political coalitions and power essential to win surveillance reform and durabl... Read More

Data about school counselors had been required previously, but this report provides the first state-level student-to-staff ratio comparison for these other school-based mental health personnel, along with school counselors. A key finding of the report is that schools are under-resourced and students are overcriminalized. Read More

Nosotros esperamos que este manual práctico sirva de herramienta para que los residentes de California hagan cambios en sus comunidades y para que se mantengan involucrados en los procesos que impactan su vida. Read More

A toolkit for communities seeking improved water, sanitation, and other municipal services Everyone needs basic municipal services, ranging from water to garbage and sewage removal. But these services are not equitably distributed. The purpose of this toolkit is to help residents advocate for the services they need and deserve. It explains a key process by which local governments make decision... Read More

A report by the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the Pacific Institute, “A Survey of Efforts to Achieve Universal Access to Water and Sanitation in California,” details the lack of access to sanitation faced by many communities in California. In 2012, California became the first state in the country to enact legislation recognizing the human right to water. But low-income people who l... Read More

A report by the ACLU Foundations of California and Fresno Building Health Communities, “Is Funding for High-Need Students Actually Reaching Those Students? A Review of Fresno Unified’s Local Control Accountability Plan” details one school district’s attempt to improperly use state funds designated for high need students. In 2014, California passed the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), a law th... Read More

This report recommends a hierarchy of reforms based on their financial feasibility. Policy updates and improvements would require no new resources and would help to improve degraded police-community relationships. Read More

“Smart city” products are often touted as cost-efficient solutions to providing government services and addressing societal challenges, but in reality, these technologies are no more intelligent than the data and algorithms behind them. Like other tools, their effectiveness depends on when, where and how they are used. These technologies can cause real harm to people—they have the power to exacerb... Read More

On any given day, over 60 percent of people in jail in California are awaiting trial or sentencing, and many remain detained simply because they cannot afford to post money bail. The results can be devastating. Individuals who spend even a few days in pretrial detention - let alone weeks or even months - can end up losing their jobs, their homes, and their children. The current bail system disprop... Read More

Like many teenage boys, Nathan and Caleb, 14- and 16-year-old brothers who were students at Clarkston High School in rural Washington, liked to play pranks. At least they did until an incident at school landed both boys with felony charges. One morning the boys were in the same class with a substitute teacher watching a movie when they remembered the small bottles of fart spray they had with th... Read More