The Center for Justice will tackle crime, punishment, and over-incarceration as crucial issues in our unfinished agenda to achieve justice.

Prisoners' Rights

The ACLU is dedicated to ensuring that our prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities comply with the Constitution, federal law, and international human rights principles, and to addressing the crisis of over-incarceration today. The ACLU of SD is principally concerned that the criminal justice system treats women and girls fairly regardless of race and that it protects the healthcare choices and safety of all women in custody.

Juvenile & Students' Rights

The ACLU actively supports efforts to remedy or eliminate school policies that exclude students, disproportionately of color, from the South Dakota school system by channeling them into the juvenile justice system. The “School to Prison Pipeline” treats students in such a manner as to violate their basic rights to due process and equal protection and should not have a place in our educational system. Violations of the constitutional rights of students are far too common in public schools today. Student newspapers and library materials are censored. Lockers, back packs and even students are searched without reasonable suspicion. Female students are excluded from certain extracurricular activities, and gay students are intimidated into silence. The ACLU works to ensure that Constitutional rights are enforced in South Dakota’s public schools.