GrayKey enables its users to unlock passcodes in iOS devices, giving police access to personal files as part of an investigation.
New York Civil Liberties Union
Posted inNews & Opinion
Report: Rochester nuisance law has racial impact
City officials use nuisance abatement laws to try to relieve some of the problems that come with urban living: noise, drug sales, deteriorating buildings. But the laws themselves can create problems. Critics say abatement laws don’t really fix the nuisances. Instead, they put tenants at risk of being evicted, and they just shuffle problems around […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
NYCLU report pushes for bail reform
Between 2010 and 2014, 6,673 people spent a week or more in Monroe County jail with bail of $1,000 or less, according to a new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union. More than 1,900 of them spent more than a week in jail on bail of $250 or less, it says. The NYCLU […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Rules for asylum-seekers change at Batavia Facility
Last November, a federal judge ruled that the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia could not detain asylum-seekers without parole or bond hearings. But as those proceedings began in December, in more than a dozen cases immigration judges set prohibitively high bonds for asylum-seekers — as high as $15,000.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Schools are no haven for transgender youth
A recent report from the New York Civil Liberties Union says that discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming youth is pervasive in the state’s public schools. During the 2012-2013 school year, there were nearly 25,000 reported incidents of harassment related to gender stereotypes and sexual orientation, according to the report, “Dignity For All? Discrimination Against […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Some progress on indigent defense
New York State has settled a lawsuit that accused it of systematically depriving poor criminal defendants of their right to counsel. And in doing so it has recognized, for the first time, that it is responsible for providing legal representation for those defendants, say state civil rights and indigent defense groups. In a 50-year-old decision, […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
For the poor, search for equal justice continues
Life as a defense attorney for the poor often means long days, modest pay, and crushing caseloads. In the Monroe County Public Defender’s Office, attorneys in some bureaus handle more than double the number of cases recommended by national guidelines. The heavy workload has kept the office from providing some defendants in town and village […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
NYCLU calls on state officials to reform solitary confinement practices
A new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union raises some serious questions about the use of punitive solitary confinement in the state’s prisons. The state has approximately 5,000 beds in special housing units (SHU’s) — many of them built during the last 20 years — at 39 prisons, says the report. Each day, […]
