The Southern Center for Human Rights is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

public interest law firm dedicated to enforcing the

civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...

and

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

of people in the criminal justice system in the South. Based in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, it has won cases in several states in the southeastern United States, including

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

, and

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. The Center’s legal work includes representing prisoners in challenges to unconstitutional conditions and practices in prisons and jails; challenging systemic failures in the legal representation of poor people in the criminal courts; and representing people facing the death penalty who otherwise would have no representation. Alabama is the only state that does not provide legal representation to people on death row. The Center's former director and president, Stephen Bright, was lauded in 2001 by

Nat Hentoff Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for ''The Village Voice'' from 1958 to 2009. Fo ...

in the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

''. In May 2004, the Center was highlighted in a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' op-ed piece which compared treatment of prisoners in Georgia to abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

References

Sources

*Alexander, Michelle. ''The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.'' New Press: New York, 2010. *Bach, Amy. ''Ordinary Injustice: How America Holds Court''. Metropolitan Books, New York, 2009. *Cole, David. ''No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System.'' New Press: New York, 1999. *Stevenson, Bryan. ''Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-Year-Old Children to Die in Prison.'' Montgomery, Ala.: Equal Justice Initiative, 2010. *———. ''Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection: A Continuing Legacy.'' Montgomery, Ala.: Equal Justice Initiative, 2010.

External links

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Ratings
from Charity Navigator Legal organizations based in the United States Criminal justice reform in the United States Criminal defense organizations Prison reformers Children's rights activists Activists for African-American civil rights {{nonprofit-org-stub