NATIONAL LEGAL AID AND DEFENDER ASSOCIATION

The Restoration of Rights Project is an online resource that offers state-by-state analyses of the law and practice in each U.S. jurisdiction relating to restoration of rights and status following arrest or conviction. It is a valuable resource for practitioners in all phases of the criminal justice system, for courts, for civil practitioners assisting clients whose court-imposed sentence has exposed them to additional civil penalties, for policymakers and advocates interested in reentry and reintegration of convicted persons, and for the millions of Americans with a criminal record who are seeking to put their past behind them.

This resource covers areas such as loss and restoration of civil rights and firearms rights, judicial and executive mechanisms for avoiding or mitigating collateral consequences, and provisions addressing non-discrimination in employment and licensing. Each jurisdiction’s information is separately summarized for quick reference. It also provides a set of 50-state comparison charts that illustrates national patterns in restoration laws and policies. Jurisdiction-specific information about organizations that assist individuals in securing relief and other third-party resources will be provided in the future.

The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) has partnered with the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) to create an innovative pilot program that will train AmeriCorps VISTA members in best practices in Community-Oriented Defense and place them in public defense agencies in order to put these principles into practice and establish systems for ongoing sustainability. This AmeriCorps VISTA project allows NLADA, for the first time ever, to provide boots on the ground to in-need public defense offices in order to help offices modernize their approach to evidence-based practices, data management, and community partnerships. Over the course of their 12-month term of service, AmeriCorps VISTA members will perform activities such as building community partnerships within their host communities and developing data systems and analysis methods to drive evidence-based practices by their host organizations.

Because the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is the single largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans, its policies, regulations, and compliance activities can have a profound effect on the ability of legal aid programs to deliver high-quality services. NLADA therefore advocates with the LSC and its board, participating in the rule-making process and taking other actions to support our LSC-funded members.

Our work includes:
1. Providing legal advice and assistance to individual and program members from Chief Counsel Chris Buerger and Vice President of Civil Programs Don Saunders.
2. Attending LSC’s quarterly board meetings in person, as well those held via conference calls, and monitoring committee and the full board meetings; updating the field on important developments and highlights of the meeting; and advocating for the field through public testimony at committee and board meetings.
3. Participating in LSC’s rulemaking process through steps such as monitoring all LSC rulemaking activity, preparing and distributing to our members summaries and analyses of LSC’s proposed regulatory revisions, organizing discussions among NLADA’s Regulations Committee and other interested stakeholders, such as the American Bar Association, about the potential impact of proposed regulatory and policy revisions, accessing skills of appropriate experts regarding proposed policy and regulatory changes, and drafting and submitting comments regarding LSC’s proposed regulatory and policy revisions.
4. Preparing memos and guides for members on new regulations, restrictions, advisory opinions, and program letters issued by LSC.
5. Monitor, provide guidance, and advocate for LSC programs monitored and investigated by the LSC’s Office of Program Performance, Office of Compliance Performance, and the Office of Inspector General.
6. Developing LSC Program Resources.

For more than 100 years, the National Legal Aid & Defender Association has been on the forefront of the effort to promote excellence in the delivery of public defense and civil legal aid. Fair, effective pretrial practices that provide the highest manner of justice have been a central tenet of NLADA’s mission and its national standards for quality representation.

The Safety and Justice Challenge is an initiative to reduce over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails. The initiative—an initial five-year, $100 million investment by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation—features a competition to help jurisdictions across the country create fairer, more effective local justice systems.

As a Strategic Ally of the Challenge, NLADA is working with defenders from each jurisdiction to promote their leadership and share essential information from the Challenge with the broader public defense community. NLADA will provide the following services and tools to the entire Challenge Network:

1. Toolkits, resource guides, training materials and webinars - developed with Challenge partners and sites - pertaining to pretrial justice and early access to counsel.
2. Peer-networking and information-sharing among Challenge Network defenders, and with NLADA's community of defender, civil legal aid, and client advocates.
3. Communications and strategic problem-solving support to inform, engage, and encourage broad public defense community participation in the Challenge.

NLADA leads a broad network of advocates on the frontlines to advance justice and expand opportunity for all by promoting excellence in the delivery of legal services for people who cannot afford counsel. At the heart of this work are our values of diversity, equality, and inclusion – a recognition that the principle of racial equity must be present in our hiring decisions, in our practice, and in our engagement with our communities.

We do not conflate poverty with racism. To say that because the majority of our clients are persons of color, we necessarily perform racial justice work would be to simplify the difficult issues of poverty, racial injustice, and racial injustice that flows from poverty. These issues are neither proxies for one another nor are they mutually exclusive. In fact, the connection between the two is longstanding and deeply rooted in American history.

In commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission’s Report and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are reminded that economic and racial justice have long been connected and that one cannot be achieved while leaving the other behind. Dr. King’s words should push us forward in our work to secure justice and promote equality: “[M]ankind's survival is dependent on man's ability to solve the problems of racial injustice, poverty, and war; the solution of these problems is in turn dependent upon man's squaring his moral progress with his scientific progress, and learning the practical art of living in harmony.”

NLADA always recognized the importance of racial justice in its activities and the work of its members. Our joint statement on racial justice with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and our Fight Against Implicit Bias and Racial Inequality Pledge are our most recent steps to more clearly acknowledge that our work to provide access to justice for people who cannot afford counsel is advanced through our efforts to promote racial justice. NLADA now issues this action plan is intended to propel this work forward and commits NLADA and its members to: (1) speak with clarity about poverty and racial equity; (2) improve our internal governance to reflect the racial equity we seek to secure in our communities; and (3) support a purpose-driven practice that employs strategic advocacy to advance racial justice in our communities.