Friend –

With 2 million people behind bars, America continues to engage in mass incarceration that damages families, destroys communities, and deepens racial disparities in our country.

In 2022, this is one of the many civil rights crises that we must urgently tackle.

Before I go into more detail, I'll state upfront that winning these battles will take tremendous resources especially as we all continue to face the impacts of the ongoing pandemic. We'll need your generosity more than ever to change lives and communities – for everyone trapped in our unjust prison system and for all people nationwide.

I am hoping you will make a year-end gift of $35, $50, or more to the ACLU's 2022 Action Fund before tomorrow at midnight. Your gift will support the relentless work of our attorneys, advocates, and volunteers to defend all civil liberties – including the work to combat mass incarceration.

The ACLU's decarceration work builds on our 50-State Blueprints project, a comprehensive analysis of how each state can cut the number of people behind bars by half.

• We're pushing for states to end mandatory minimum sentences and to rely on alternatives to imprisonment as often as possible.
• We're also fighting in the courts, filing 83 legal actions on behalf of more than 48,000 people seeking their release from prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
• And we're continuing urgent litigation and advocacy efforts to push for clemency – including for people serving their sentences at home under the CARES Act who are still at risk of being forced back into prison despite their success in establishing productive lives in their communities.

In other words, we're using all of our tools to fight mass incarceration on multiple fronts. But we're going to need your help to do this and to keep the ACLU strong.

I urge you to make a generous gift to the ACLU's 2022 Action Fund today to help us turn the year ahead into one of progress in the work to protect all of our civil liberties.

Sincerely,

Yasmin Cader
Pronouns: She, her, hers
Legal Director, ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality

P.S. If you've already made your year-end gift, then please accept our sincere thanks from the whole ACLU team. We can't thank you enough for your support.