On March 12, the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer filed a lawsuit against the Philadelphia courts, challenging the courts' excessive reliance on cash bail to incarcerate people. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of ten people who cannot afford their bail and two organizations, the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund and the Youth Art and Self-empowerment Project.

In this episode, we hear from our clients and attorneys who are working on the case. Learn more at aclupa.org/PhillyBail.

Then, in honor of Women's History Month, we hear from Yvonne Latty, who tells us the story of mothers who are incarcerated and how excessive cash bail keeps them there, separated from their families.

To learn more about our clients and to support them, visit phillybailout.com and yasproject.com.

A handful of local officials in Pennsylvania have taken it upon themselves to enforce federal immigration law, including a magisterial district judge in Cumberland County and some Pennsylvania State Police troopers. In this episode, we hear from Desi Burnette of MILPA and Golnaz Fakhimi of the ACLU of PA, who talk about the work that is being done to push the state police and the Wolf administration to stop cooperating with federal immigration authorities. And Golnaz tells us about a new ACLU-PA case in which we've sued a sitting judge for calling ICE on a couple's wedding day.

For information about MILPA's work, visit milpafamilia.org.

Learn more about the Parker case at aclupa.org/Parker.

Here is the ProPublica/Philadelphia Inquirer investigation into state police overstepping their bounds and investigating the immigration status of the people they encounter:

https://www.propublica.org/article/pennsylvania-immigration-ice-crackdown-cops-free-for-all

The report from the Sheller Center at Temple University on ICE officers arresting people in courthouses is available here:

https://www2.law.temple.edu/csj/publication/obstructing-justice-the-chilling-effect-of-ices-arrests-of-immigrants-at-pennsylvanias-courthouses/

On any given day, there are upwards of 300,00 people on either probation or parole in Pennsylvania. And far from an alternative to incarceration, community-based supervision can feed mass incarceration by keeping people in a cycle in which they are going in and out of jails and prisons for years, often without committing a new crime.

Legislation at the Pennsylvania General Assembly would reform the commonwealth's probation system. SB 14 was introduced in February with a bipartisan group of sponsors.

In this episode, we hear from some of the state lawmakers and advocates about what that bill does and why it is needed. Dr. Kevin Dolphin of Breaking the Chainz is one of those advocates, and he sat down with host Andy Hoover about how his group approaches mass incarceration from both ends - working with young people to keep them out of prison and helping people who are coming out of prison.

Learn more about Breaking the Chainz at https://breakingthechainz.webs.com/

To support SB 14, find your state senator at pasen.gov. And learn more about probation and parole reform at aclupa.org/smartjustice.

To catch up on the latest civil liberties news, check out aclupa.org/news.

The criminal justice policies of the 1980s and 1990s were a total failure. Lives were ruined, prison and jail populations swelled, and budgets bloated. And yet some elected officials, including district attorneys, cling to this outdated way of thinking.

Fair and Just Prosecution is a new organization dedicated to a vision of a 21st century prosecutor. In this episode, we hear from Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of FJP who was a federal prosecutor for 15 years. FJP provides support to prosecutors who believe in "a justice system grounded in fairness, equity, compassion, and fiscal responsibility."

Our discussion with Ms. Krinsky comes on the heels of the launch of ACLU-PA's new website KnowYourDAinPA.org. The site provides information about the power of DAs and the responses we received to a survey we sent to all 67 county DAs in Pennsylvania. From the site, you can send a note to your DA with your thoughts about smart justice.

Learn more about FJP at fairandjustprosecution.org. And follow Miriam on Twitter [at]krinskymak.

It's been a year! For the last episode of 2018, we hear from Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Reggie looks back on the highlights of 2018, previews what is ahead in 2019, and reflects on his 20+ year career as a civil rights advocate.

Read Reggie's writing about being stopped by the police in his home town of Wilmington, North Carolina, at this link: https://medium.com/@reggieshuford/home-not-so-sweet-home-550788a38f

In 1980, the average age of people serving death-by-incarceration, or life-without-parole, in Pennsylvania was 33. Today it's 48. And there are more than 1400 people serving DBI in the commonwealth who are over the age of 60.

In episode 16, we hear from Tomiko Shine and Karen Lee of Aging People in Prison Human Rights Campaign. APPHRC advocates for the release of elderly people who are incarcerated, through legal and policy advocacy, and is starting a new chapter in Philadelphia.

Also, ACLU-PA has a brand new website to advance transgender equality, transformationpa.org. Naiymah Sanchez, our transgender advocacy coordinator, talks about the features of the site and how it empowers trans Pennsylvanians to know their rights.

Learn more about APPHRC at apphrc.com. The first meeting of APPHRC's Philadelphia chapter is Saturday, December 29, at 1 p.m. at the Free Library's Widener Branch Library at 28th Street and W. Lehigh Avenue. You can connect with the chapter by emailing [email protected].

The 2017-18 session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly is finally over! And our legislative director, Elizabeth Randol, will finally get a break. In this episode, Liz talks about what happened, what didn't happen, and what may happen next year at the state legislature.

Then we hear from state Representative Daniel Miller of Allegheny County, who gives his perspective on achievements in criminal justice reform and the potential to do more.

Learn more about our legislative work at aclupa.org/legislation.

Rep. Miller is on Twitter [at]VoteDanMiller and on Instagram [at]RepDanMiller. Also on Twitter, you can find Liz [at]RandolElizabeth, Andy Hoover [at]freedomsfriend, and the ACLU of PA [at]aclupa.

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is copying and storing mail that is sent to prisoners, including mail from their attorneys. In this episode, we hear from Vic Walczak, legal director of the ACLU-PA, and Saleem Holbrook, an organizer with the Abolitionist Law Center and a co-founder of the Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration. Vic explains a new lawsuit we've filed against the DOC to stop its policy of copying legal mail, and Saleem talks about the harm caused by the department's new restrictions on all mail.

Learn more about CADBI on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/CADBIphilly/

Related information about the lawsuit PILP v. DOC, including legal documents, is available at aclupa.org/PILP.

And Reggie Shuford's letter in response to the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue is available here: https://medium.com/@ACLUPA/we-want-america-to-be-fair-just-and-free-a-letter-from-our-executive-director-35a6fb66f9aa

In 1974, there were approximately 500 people serving life-without-parole, what prisoners and activists call death-by-incarceration, in Pennsylvania. Today, there are more than 5,000.

In September, the Abolitionist Law Center, a prisoners' rights legal advocacy group in Pittsburgh, released a new report on DBI called A Way Out: Abolishing Death by Incarceration in Pennsylvania. In this episode, we hear from Quinn Cozzens, a staff attorney from ALC and a co-author of the report. Quinn talks about the findings of the report and the path forward to ending this dehumanizing, extreme sentence.

The report is available at abolitionistlawcenter.org. ALC is also on Twitter @ AbolitionistLC and on Facebook.

For part two of our two-part back-to-school series, we hear from Preston Heldibridle, state policy associate for the Pennsylvania Youth Congress. PYC is an LGBTQ youth advocacy group and a client of ACLU-PA in defense of the Boyertown Area School District's practice of allowing transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms appropriate to their gender identity. (More information is available at aclupa.org/Boyertown.) As a recent high school graduate, Preston offers the perspective of the challenges that trans students and LGBQ students face and how PYC supports them.

You can learn more about PYC at payouthcongress.org and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.