Attend a Smart Justice Event - Check our online listing for upcoming events and sign up for ACLU email updates to learn when events are scheduled in your area.
Learn About Your Local Prosecutor – Elected prosecutors in Vermont are called State’s Attorneys, and they have enormous power over the lives of Vermonters entangled in the criminal justice system. They choose who gets charged and who is free to go, who gets treatment and who goes to jail. Learn more about your local state's attorney and pledge to vote in the next state's attorney election.
Host a Smart Justice Presentation – Bring ACLU-VT to your classroom, conference or organization to talk more about our goal of reducing Vermont’s prison population by at least half and the solutions that can help get us there. We will meet requests as our availability allows. Contact us to learn more.
Co-Sponsor a Film Screening or Panel – Create an opportunity for your community to learn more about the factors that drive mass incarceration, racial disparities in our criminal justice system and the issues at stake for our state. If you take responsibility for the logistics, we can work with you to plan the content, support outreach and highlight Smart Justice VT during the event. Contact us to learn more.
Organize a Reading Group – Books like Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” and Angela Davis’ “Are Prisons Obsolete?” make compelling conversation starters for people interested in learning how the U.S. created the world’s largest population of incarcerated people – and what we can do about it. Review the complete reading list and share it with the readers in your life.
Become an Advocate – Are you someone who has experienced incarceration, has a close family member who is or was incarcerated, or has felt other direct impacts of the criminal justice system on your life? If you are interested in being involved in our education and advocacy efforts, we’d like to hear from you. Contact us to learn more.
Support Our Partners – ACLU-VT isn’t the only organization working to propose alternatives to incarceration and eliminate root causes of racial and economic injustice. Learn more about our coalition partners and their work for criminal justice reform and racial justice.
