News & Commentary

Hartford Public Library is celebrating Banned Books Week from September 28 – October 3. Banned Books Week is the national book community's annual celebration of the freedom to read. Hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a kick-off event.Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982 according to the American Library Association. There were 311 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2014, and many more go unreported.This year the Library, in partnership once again with the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, will kick off the celebration with an interactive panel discussion called Banned Theater! featuring three plays that were challenged or banned in the United States at one time. The plays are Blues for Mr. Charlie by James Baldwin, My Name is Rachel Corrie edited by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner, and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You by Christopher Durang. The Banned Theater discussion begins at 6:00 PM in the downtown library’s Center for Contemporary Culture at 500 Main Street.The panel will feature Rob Ruggiero, Producing Artistic Director at TheaterWorks; Rachel Alderman, Artistic Associate at Hartford Stage Company; Jacques LaMarre, local playwright and Director of Communications & Special Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum; and David McGuire, Legislative and Policy Director at the ACLU of Connecticut.  Dr. Lois Brown, Director of the Center for African American Studies at Wesleyan University, will serve as moderator.“This year, we celebrate the 90th birthday of James Baldwin, who was no stranger to the censorship of his work.  It is in his honor that we look at his and other banned plays,” said Hartford Public Library’s chief executive officer Matt Poland. “The history of censorship in the theater mirrors the censorship of literature, and it is only thanks to the dedication of libraries, teachers, and communities that we can still access works that have been suppressed over the centuries. During Banned Books Week we lean into controversy with the hope of better understanding what could make a work of art so objectionable that it should be entirely hidden from view.”Stephen Glassman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Connecticut, said, “Attempting to control what we read has always been one of the most odious forms of censorship.  We must continue to protect our right to say, think, read, and write whatever we want without fear of government reprisal.  We’re proud to work with the Hartford Public Library, which puts these rights into action, to celebrate Banned Books Week.”

The city of Hartford could introduce a diversion program to steer low level drug offenders and people involved in sex work into supportive services instead of jail, according to leading mayoral candidates.On Tuesday, September 8, the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut—with the Law and Government Academy at Hartford High School and the League of Women Voters Greater Hartford—organized a debate among the candidates for mayor of our capital city.Legendary news anchor Al Terzi moderated the debate, which drew almost 120 people.Nearly all the candidates backed some criminal justice reforms including a proposal to divert low-level drug activity and sex work to case managers and other supportive services instead of jail. One municipal model can be found in the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion [LEAD] program in Seattle. In that city, people who received services through this initiative were 60 percent less likely to be arrested within the first six months of the evaluation, compared to those who went through the ‘system-as-usual.’Democrat Luke Bronin said, “I am 100 percent in favor of a program like LEAD [Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion]. It’s based on the fundamental judgement that we cannot punish our way out of a drug problem. We have tried for decades in declaring war on drugs to solve the problem of addiction through jail time. It was misguided then and it’s misguided now.”Mayor Pedro Segarra (D) also voiced support for diversion programs and said, “We are currently working with our chief and the state to create a program that would divert people who are accused of prostitution, prior to an arrest. In other words, no arrest, but try to connect these individuals with services.”Republican Ted Cannon, said of the Seattle program, “It truly is a second chance. There are several other cities, Santa Fe being one, that have initiated programs like this. This has been going on in the United Kingdom for years and it is working incredibly well. So my point is, if it is working, then why not pursue it?”While unaffiliated candidate Joel Cruz did not specifically address diversion programs, he called for better services for people in contact with the criminal justice system. He said, “As a city I would love to see us ban-the-box and expand that to other entities within the city and employers, rather than just have the city of Hartford not asking people if they’ve committed a crime in the past. But go even further than that … What about those who already have a record and expanding services so they can get help.”The first-of-its-kind forum questioned candidates on key civil liberties issues in the city. Students from the Law and Government Academy at Hartford High School asked the candidates about police acquisition of military equipment, which has occurred with little or no public oversight. Since 2009, state and local police in Connecticut have acquired $12.9 million worth of military equipment, including military vehicles, automatic weapons and even a grenade launcher.Segarra raised concerns about the militarization of police forces and said that as mayor “any acquisition of military equipment needs to be cleared through me.” He added, “We’ve been over-militarizing our police forces for way too long. We need to bring better community relations as the alternative.”Bronin argued that most military equipment would be prohibited under a recent ban by President Obama. However, he raised concerns about the issue and said, “For a police department to be legitimate, for it to be respected, for it to have the trust of the community, it cannot feel like an occupying force. It has to be a part of the community. It goes beyond just the equipment to making sure we are getting our officers out of their cars and they are walking a beat and engaging person-to-person, face-to-face.”On the question of police militarization, Cannon did not oppose acquisition per se but argued for greater transparency. Cannon said, “I don’t think we have a militaristic police department here in the city of Hartford but I do think there should be some citizen control or review board and that inventories should be made known, at least on a semi-annual basis.”Cruz, said,  “I would love for civilian complaint review board to make sure that we are not purchasing grenade launchers because … I don’t think we need that in the city of Hartford. We can put a lot more resources into better equipment for our police department like body cameras and cameras on police cruisers.”A state proposal that would have required police departments to provide a detailed inventory of stockpiled military equipment failed to pass the legislature this year.The ACLU of Connecticut thanks the Mark Twain House and Museum for hosting the event, Al Terzi for moderating and the candidates for participating in this forum.The entire debate can be viewed at CT-N.

Connecticut schools are becoming more integrated in contrast to a regional trend that is actually seeing more racial segregation, according to a new report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.One reason for the Constitution State’s success is the landmark Connecticut school desegregation case Sheff v. O’Neill.The case was launched by a group of courageous families and their attorneys, which resulted in an agreement with the state to foster significant integration across school district lines.This legal victory charted a course for Hartford students to get a high-quality education in integrated public schools. This was to be accomplished through a voluntary two-way integration program of inter-district magnet schools and suburban Open Choice placements that enable Hartford students to study with their suburban counterparts.The report’s author, Gary Orfield, said, “Thanks to creative educators, a path-making State Supreme Court, and determined civil rights advocacy, Connecticut is building a new model of educational opportunity though the creation of highly desirable and integrated schools of choice.”Click here to read the report.

Around 150 people representing the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut took action at the Capitol in defense of civil liberties.The ACLU teamed up with Compassion and Choices Connecticut, the Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance, Hartford Rising and the NAACP Connecticut State Conference to advance important civil liberties in the state.Stephen Glassman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Connecticut, said, “Our numbers reflect the enthusiasm that people feel for protecting individual privacy, autonomy, due process and equality under the law. People are motivated to defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in our state.”Activists met with elected officials and urged them to support priority areas for legislative advocacy, which include:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut is proud to join with the Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance for Lobby Day 2015 to defend important civil liberties in the Constitution State.Lobby Day 2015 is an opportunity to meet with your legislators and have your voice heard on critical civil liberties issues. The items on this year’s agenda include:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut is proud to join with Hartford Rising! for Lobby Day 2015 to defend the rights to privacy, due process and battle against discriminatory policing.Lobby Day 2015 is an opportunity to meet with your legislators and have your voice heard on critical civil liberties issues. The items on this year’s agenda include:

Alarmist theories linking comic books and juvenile delinquency gained currency in the 1950s and brought on decades of wary self-censorship by publishers, author David Hajdu said at an observance of Banned Books Week at Hartford Public Library.Congressional hearings and media hype, including a highly promoted series in The Hartford Courant entitled Depravity for Children: 10 Cents a Copy, heightened the hysteria, Hajdu said in a conversation with Julia Pistell, a Hartford writer, improviser, teacher and public relations consultant. Pistell and her comedy improv troupe, Sea Tea Improv, also performed at the event, sponsored by the library and the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut on September 23, 2014.Comic books and graphic novels were the focus of Banned Books Week observances across the country.Hadju has written several books, including The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America. He is also the music critic for The New Republic and a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. 

Censorship in prison and the chilling effects of surveillance on freedom of expression were at the forefront of the 2013 Banned Books Readout on Monday.The event featured seven celebrity panelists reading from banned or challenged books. They included Wally Lamb, whose book She's Come Undone was briefly banned at York Correctional Institution. The event, held at the Mark Twain branch of Hartford Public Library, was sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, Hartford Public Library and the Law and Government Academy at Hartford Public High School.Tom Condon, deputy editorial page editor of The Hartford Courant, read from George Orwell's classic 1984, describing it as "the book that put the 'dys' in dystopian." He noted the similarity between Orwell's vision and recently revealed government surveillance in the United States, adding "Is there a greater irony than banning a book that warns of the dangers of totalitarianism?"In welcoming the audience, Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut, also drew a parallel between the government surveillance described by Orwell and the surveillance of Americans by the National Security Agency. The government can track not only phone calls but also the websites that people read and the online records of their book buying and borrowing, he said."We need to continue our vigilance against censorship in all its forms," he said, "including the chilling effects of surveillance on readers and the potential damage to our democracy."Lamb talked about the controversy around the decision earlier this month to pull his novel She's Come Undone from the library at York Correctional. The decision was reversed after a public outcry, as was a decision to consider banning a book of inmates' writing that Lamb edited, I'll Fly Away.Hearing the voices of incarcerated women emerge as they write their stories has been a privilege, Lamb said. "A lot of women in prison have already been silenced," he said.Fellow panelist Stan Simpson, a columnist and TV talk show host, pointed out that most inmates don't have high school diplomas and many are functionally illiterate. "Banning books doesn't help," he said.The other panelists were Cathy Malloy, executive director of the Greater Hartford Arts Council; local musician Lorena Garay; Wilfredo Nieves, president of Capital Community College; and Rebecca Duncan, a student at the Law and Government Academy. John Dankosky, news director of WNPR radio and host of Where We Live, served as moderator.

"To ban a book is to gag the writer and blindfold the reader. Neither is acceptable in a country where freedom of speech is treasured." - Wally LambWally Lamb will read from his acclaimed novel She's Come Undone on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013, at the annual Banned Books Readout sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, Hartford Public Library and the Law and Government Academy at Hartford Public High School.Other readers will include Cathy Malloy, executive director of the Greater Hartford Arts Council; Tom Condon of the Hartford Courant; local musician Lorena Garay; Wilfredo Nieves, President of Capital Community College; Rebecca Duncan, a student at the Law & Government Academy; and Stan Simpson, host of Fox TV's The Stan Simpson Show. John Dankosky, news director of WNPR radio and host of Where We Live, will serve as moderator.The event will begin at 6 p.m. at Hartford Public Library's Mark Twain Branch in Hartford Public High School, 55 Forest St. Light refreshments will be available at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.She's Come Undone, Lamb's first novel, was briefly banned earlier this month at the York Correctional Institution in Niantic, where Lamb volunteers and teaches a writing course. A review board objected to what it described as "graphic content" in the best-selling 1992 novel, which follows a troubled young woman's path to redemption. The ban was quickly reversed after a public outcry, as was the decision to review a collection of inmates' writing edited by Lamb.The readout will feature several other books that have been challenged, censored or banned, including Alice Walker's The Color Purple, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers and George Orwell's classic 1984."Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship," said Matthew K. Poland, chief executive officer of Hartford Public Library. "While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available. This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read."Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut said, "The government's urge to censor has not abated, as the Connecticut Department of Correction recently demonstrated. We must strive to protect the right of all people, including prisoners, to read, learn and confront new ideas. And we must also confront a more subtle and insidious threat to our right of free expression - the pervasive, universal and secret government surveillance that compels people to guard their words, stifle their ideas and chill their free expression."