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Doing ~ data science ~ at the ACLU has been a dream job since I started nearly 2 years ago, but I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of my team than I have been this week, or more honored to be doing the work we’re doing. To recap:
On Monday, we published a report we’ve been working on since last fall. We looked at the data, and found that across the country, in all states and nearly every county, Black people get busted for marijuana possession far more often than white people. https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/a-tale-of-two-countries-racially-targeted-arrests-in-the-era-of-marijuana-reform/
These arrests are arbitrary, excessive, and racially targeted in the best of times. Right *now*, funneling people through the carceral system can be a death sentence. You can’t socially distance in jail. https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1252995830870446080
. @thaniasanc and @sophiebeiers have been instrumental in making sure this analysis is rigorous and beautifully displayed, and our tech team transformed it into an extremely useful beautiful interactive: https://graphics.aclu.org/marijuana-arrest-report/
. @paigejfernandez can tell you what to do instead of making useless harmful arrests —> https://twitter.com/paigejfernandez/status/1252279281381769219
We took a beat on Tuesday on Wednesday, we released our model of COVID-19 spread in jails and prisons. This has been @Aaron_Horowitz ’s breakfast lunch and dinner for the past month, and I’m so proud to see it in the world. https://www.aclu.org/covidinjails
For the past month+, we’ve been working with the brilliant @KLdivergence, @GermsAndNumbers, and Nina Fefferman to parameterize an epidemiological model to the crowded, ill-equipped, revolving-door conditions of a county jail. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.08.20058842v1
We ran our model in 1200+ jails across the country to attempt to quantify the lives we could save — in jail AND in their surrounding communities — if we take urgent, dramatic action to reduce jail populations.
We find that *drastic* arrest reductions, coupled with speeding the rate of release, are the best way to save thousands of lives in both jails and their surrounding communities. https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1253082401359556608
COVID-19 exacerbates every social determinant of health. Governors, sheriffs, judges, and chiefs of police can all save lives if they act now, and act boldly. https://www.aclu.org/news/smart-justice/new-model-shows-reducing-jail-population-will-lower-covid-19-death-toll-for-all-of-us/
This work is heavy. This time is heavy. But we are not helpless to effect change. And we’re just getting started.
I couldn’t be prouder of the *way* our team has risen to this challenge — everyone has jumped in to help, has had each other’s backs, and has still managed to make space for mental health breaks and daily gratitude and coffee chats that evolve into Mario Kart.
I’m so grateful to the data scientists, analysts, engineers & journalists on the ACLU Analytics team. We're also so lucky to work alongside some of the smartest & most hardworking communicators, lawyers, technologists, researchers & advocates in the game.
