<- Back to Washington in Action Winter 2023 Newsletter - Table of Contents
My friends,
This year, the dedicated staff at the ACLU-WA worked to live our annual theme, "Dwell in Possibility.” We imagined the world we want and fought to make change happen and turn possibility into reality.
And we’re only getting started. In the coming year, our team remains ready to join with community, activists, and ACLU-WA members to advance and protect equity and justice for all in Washington. We’ll use every tool we have – in the courts, at the legislature and in the streets – to secure a more just and humane world for all.
These stories reveal who we are and what we believe at the ACLU-WA. They capture our mission to protect civil rights and civil liberties and make clear that, while we face undeniable challenges, we remain committed to dwelling in possibility together.
I invite you to read, to process, and be prepared to act. Here you will:
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Learn about the launch of the ACLU-WA’s five-year plan to disrupt legalized oppression and build a thriving democracy for everyone in Washington. Our plan is built on a radical vision that acknowledges not just the promises of the United States’ founding documents, but the fact that the country was built on historic injustices and failures that must be undone to achieve true equity and justice for all.
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Read an introduction to our new blog series, “Home Safe,” which examines how overinvestment in the criminal legal system has devastated communities and created a mass incarceration crisis in our state. It’s past time to change direction. Only investment in families, schools, and communities – not punishment – will build a safer Washington for all.
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Meet Jazmyn Clark, the new director of ACLU-WA’s Smart Justice Policy Program, who is dedicated to achieving systemic change through sentencing reform, decriminalizing poverty, and combatting narratives around crime and substance use that dehumanize people in the criminal legal system and fail to make our communities safer.
At the ACLU-WA, we will continue to show up until everyone can live with dignity, equity and freedom, unimpeded by racial and economic injustice and other forms of oppression. Join me to dwell in this possibility for the coming year and beyond.
Together, we will create the future that we want to see. Thank you for being part of this vital work.
Onwards toward justice and freedom,
Michele
<- Back to Washington in Action Winter 2023 Newsletter - Table of Contents
