Closing the Gap Between Civil and Criminal Representation of Low-Income Clients


“If we are serious about facilitating reentry into civil society by men and women with criminal records, we must face several issues head-on,” according to Rep. Danny K. Davis of Illinois’s seventh congressional district. To Representative Davis, the primary sponsor of the Second Chance Act, this means: “We must offer drug treatment on demand for everyone who requests it. We must provide appropriate training and then find work for people with records, not just offer them programs. And we must challenge everyone, particularly employers, to open their hearts and welcome these men and women into the workforce or they surely will return to prison.”

The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law agrees that criminal records shadow individuals and their family members for a lifetime. Advocates and legislators must design new ways to reunite people who have criminal records with their communities. The July–August 2007 Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy special issue on “The Shadow of Criminal Records: What’s a Civil Lawyer to Do?” with an introduction by Rep. Davis focuses on solutions to the reentry crisis and on ending recidivism. The special issue compiles insights and advice from lawyers already working on legal strategies for lessening the burden of criminal conviction records and makes this information accessible for legal aid lawyers, public defenders, and other advocates across the country.
 
What happens when an individual released from prison uses his mother’s subsidized housing address as his own although he does not live there, and the public housing authority moves to evict the household because it includes someone with a criminal record? Does a teenager discharged from juvenile detention facility have a right to register as a student at her comprehensive public high school? Upon release from county jail, how does a recipient of Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid reinstate benefits? These questions and many others can fall through the wide cracks between civil and criminal representation of low-income clients.

The Shriver Center devotes the July–August 2007 special issue of Clearinghouse Review to narrowing this gap, to sharing solutions with advocates and legislators, and to continuing the dialogue on this problem.

These are some of the special issue’s 20 articles by advocates and attorneys nationwide:

  • “The Intersection of Race, Poverty, and Crime” by Francisca D. Fajana
  • “Attacking Poverty by Attacking Chronic Unemployment: An Update on Developments in Transitional Job Strategies for Former Prisoners” by John Bouman, Joseph A. Antolín, and Melissa Young
  • “Chicago’s Title VII Working Group” by Margaret Stapleton
  • “Cross-Sector Collaboration in Reentry: Building an Infrastructure for Change” by McGregor Smyth
  • “Pipe Dreams for Legal Aid Lawyers: A Civil Practice that Considers the Criminal Side” by Jack Daniel
  • “When Your ‘Permanent Record’ is a Permanent Barrier: Helping Legal Aid Clients Reduce the Stigma of Criminal Records” by Sharon M. Dietrich
  • “Avoiding Unintended Consequences in Civil Advocacy for Criminally Charged Immigrants” by Alina Das
  • “Protecting Subsidized Housing for Families of Released Prisoners” by Robert A. Stalker


To schedule an interview with a legal editor or advocate, contact Joanna Vanderwoude at 312.263.3830 ext 253. Click here for more information on how to subscribe to Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy and other Shriver Center publications.