Women Criminal Defense Attorneys: NACDL Releases Must-Read Restoration of Rights Report
NACDL’s Task Force on Restoration of Rights and Status After Conviction began a study in 2012 to examine the relief mechanisms available for people who have a conviction on their record at the local, state and federal level. Just recently, on May 29th 2014, the Task Force released their report titled Collateral Damage: America’s Failure to Forgive or Forget in the War on Crime – A Roadmap to Restore Rights and Status After Arrest or Conviction. This is by far the most comprehensive report ever created addressing the kind of stigma and policies associated with labeling individuals with convictions and treating them like second class citizens. As criminal defense lawyers, we know firsthand the stories of our clients, but this report sheds a bright light on the seriousness of this problem across the country. I was shocked at the findings of the report and so very proud to be a part of the organization that prepared it. The report aims to start a national dialogue about the issue, and it includes ten recommendations to ensure that this unfair treatment changes.
The report has attracted attention. The New York Times editorial Board wrote In Search of Second Chances, which cites the NACDL report and begins by contrasting how Martha Stewart was afforded a second chance but so many far less rich and powerful citizens are not. At least 65 million people in the United States have a criminal record and there are 45,000 laws and rules that serve to exclude vast numbers of people from fully participating in American life. Examples include bans or restrictions on voting, access to public housing, gun possession, professional and business licensing; as well as consequences on immigration status, parental rights, credit rating, ability to get a job and eligibility for benefits. The editorial board correctly notes “these law are also counterproductive, since they make it harder, if not impossible for people with criminal records to find housing or land a job, two key factors that reduce recidivism” and ”it is in no one’s interest to keep a large segment of the population on the margins of society.”
As defense attorneys, we are entrusted with the great responsibility of protecting a client charged in the system, but in fact our responsibility to protect our clients extends far beyond the system. Today, clients face a multitude of collateral consequences the moment they are arrested, even if they are not convicted, and devastating consequences if they are convicted. I remember when I began practicing and records were locally maintained and you would routinely hear lawyers in the courthouse telling clients very flippantly not to worry “you aren’t going to have a record” because depending on the resolution a client could seal and expunge a record. That bothered me then and it infuriates me today. Even back then sealing and expunging only did so much and there were multiple ways an arrest and the disposition of a case could easily be discovered. Today records are being sold by police departments and clerks offices within days of an arrest and the facts are effectively hemorrhaging all over the public domain. Records are the single most important thing that we should be talking to our clients about, after their liberty of course.
If you haven't yet seen the NACDL report, please follow the link and read it. The findings here should serve as a tool to educate you, your clients, the prosecutors on your clients’ cases, and the Judges who are determining their sentences. Use it and refer to it often. And tell everyone you know about it.