The ACLU WVU Student Association is a student organization that was created in order to foster an understanding of the Civil Liberties granted to each citizen of the United States through the Bill of Rights. The organization takes place in group activities which encourage not only the protection of civil liberties from unwarranted governmental limitations, but also, the protection of those individuals who choose to exercise those civil liberties granted to them. The group is open to all WVU students to join.
Last semester, in conjunction with the International Law Student Association, the organization hosted special guest speaker Candace Gorman to tell of her experiences defending detainees held in Guantanamo Bay detainment camp. This semester, the group plans on highlighting the prison overcrowding problem in West Virginia by hosting special guest speakers, conducting letter writing campaigns and grassroots advocacy to inform the public of the problem, and lobbying the state legislature in favor of the Public Safety and Offender Accountability Act (HB4123), a bill which attempts to solve the prison overcrowding problem by transforming the West Virginia criminal justice system from the current retributive incarceration-based model to a more rehabilitative and community-corrections model of criminal justice. Anyone interested in trying to inspire change should join us.
