I need your help with New Year's resolutions

by: Deborah Jacobs, ACLU-NJ Executive Director

Wed Jan 06, 2010 at 10:48:43 AM EST

Let freedom ring in the New Year.

Like many of you, the ACLU-NJ has a list of resolutions for 2010. However, unlike most New Jerseyans - but keeping in good company with Blue Jersey's politicos - we only have about a week to see results. Here's our list, and we need help to keep it.

1. To save money (while making government records more accessible). We're working to pass a bill that would bring the government's fees to copy public records in line with what it actually costs to copy them. Cities have charged as much as $10 for the first three pages - far higher than what you'll find at your local copy shop. It protects our democracy, and it makes cents. Read ACLU-NJ Open Government Attorney Bobby Conner's op-ed in The Star-Ledgeron lowering the cost of copies.

2. To treat people fairly. The ACLU-NJ is fighting to make sure all families in New Jersey are equal by giving same-sex couples their right to marry. Read ACLU-NJ Legal Director Ed Barocas' piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer about marriage.

3. To help people when they need it most. Our criminal justice system doesn't do much to stop crime or mete out justice. A package of bills offers reforms proven to help people avoid resorting to crime once they re-enter the real world. The bills offer food stamps to former prisoners, remove barriers to finding work, help prisoners get their GED and, perhaps most important, end huge fees families must pay to collect calls from their loved ones. Read my op-ed in The Record about redemption through intelligent criminal justice reforms.

If you help us keep our resolutions by calling your legislators TODAY, we'll help you keep yours. (As far as we're concerned, exercising your right to free speech absolutely counts as exercise.) So get active (on the issues) and call your legislators to suggest some resolutions, before the clock on opportunity strikes midnight.

Happy New Year,

Deborah

p.s. If you need to look up your legislators, enter your address here, and then find your officials' information.