Collateral Consequences Resource Center
The Collateral Consequences Resource Center is a non-profit organization established in 2014 to promote public discussion of the collateral consequences of conviction, the legal restrictions and social stigma that burden people with a criminal record long after their court-imposed sentence has been served. We provide news and commentary about this dynamic area of the law, practice and advocacy resources, and information about how to obtain relief from collateral consequences in different jurisdictions. Center board members and staff are available to advise in connection with efforts to reform policies and practices relating to collateral consequences and criminal records.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
https://epic.org/privacy/expungement/
EPIC is an independent, non-profit research center in Washington, DC. It works to protect privacy, freedom of expression, democratic values, and to promote the Public Voice in decisions concerning the future of the Internet. EPIC pursues a wide range of program activities including public education, litigation, and advocacy. EPIC routinely files amicus briefs in federal courts, pursues open-government cases, defends consumer privacy, organizes conferences for NGOs, and speaks before Congress and judicial organizations about emerging privacy and civil liberties issues. EPIC works closely with a distinguished advisory board, with expertise in law, technology and public policy and maintains two of the most popular privacy web sites in the world—epic.org and privacy.org.
The Justice and Accountability Center of Louisiana
Originally organized around its founders’ goals to end mass incarceration and create pathways toward success and away from recidivism, the Justice and Accountability Center of Louisiana is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that tackles deficiencies in the post-conviction phase of the criminal justice system while creating a supportive, collaborative space for attorneys and advocates.
It provides client-centered legal services that provide meaningful outcomes that address systemic inequalities in the criminal justice system. Believing it is not enough to simply provide free legal services, JAC fosters examination of root causes of the gross disproportionalities among its constituency. By tracking data from its services and sharing that aggregated information amongst stakeholders and policy makers, it leverages its contact with the broad array of people in need of its services to gain and share insight into these inequalities with the broader public and those who influence or make policy.
Convinced that, too often, policies are made without adequate consideration or analysis of the societal impact they may have, JAC builds dialogue between formerly-incarcerated people and lawmakers to help shape the policies that impact their lives. Whether through direct conversations or through shared data, JAC endeavors to bridge the gap between theory and practice in lawmaking.
While neither of the founders was previously incarcerated, they recognize the need to put into practice the advocacy that JAC espouses. Accordingly, JAC hires and promotes economic opportunities for formerly-incarcerated people, whenever possible.
The Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana
The Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL) was created in 1997, when Louisiana was acknowledged to have one of the country’s worst systems to treat and prevent delinquency.
In July of that year, the New York Times called Louisiana home to the “most troubled” juvenile public defender’s office in the country. The United States Department of Justice detailed brutal and inhumane conditions in Louisiana’s juvenile prisons, bringing international shame to the system. Louisiana’s juvenile justice system provided virtually no representation for children accused of crimes and then placed them in hyper-violent prisons where they regularly suffered bodily and emotional harm. The large majority of these children were African-American.
For the last 17 years, JJPL has been the leader in transforming Louisiana’s juvenile justice system. Its impact litigation and law reform advocacy have driven the private, for-profit juvenile prisons out of Louisiana and shut down two of the worst juvenile prisons in the country; and, JJPL’s efforts inspired the passage of the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2003 – legislation that increased alternatives to incarceration in children’s communities, triggering a 75% decline in Louisiana’s juvenile prison population.
In 2014, JJPL merged with the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights to increase its advocacy capacity and ensure its efforts are directly informed by the experiences of the more than 1,000 children who enter the juvenile justice system in New Orleans each year.
Louisiana State Police Concealed Weapon Rules
http://www.lsp.org/pdf/chRuleBook.pdf
This pamphlet contains selected relevant Louisiana statutes pertaining to concealed handguns, use of deadly force, and weapons, current through the Regular Session of the 2012 Louisiana Legislature. Persons desiring more information than that contained in this pamphlet should consult the Louisiana Revised Statutes or an attorney.
This pamphlet also contains the administrative rule governing the issuance and regulation of concealed handgun permits. The official publication of these rules appears in the September 20, 1996 edition of the Louisiana Register, Volume 22, No. 9 at pages 844 through 852. These rules were amended in 2012. The official publication of the amendments appears in the May 20, 2012 edition of the Louisiana Register, Volume 38, No. 5 at pages 1279 through 1285. Certified copies of these rules may be obtained from the Office of the State Register. This pamphlet does not include all Federal laws pertaining to firearms. For information relative to Federal regulation of firearms, you may contact the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections gratefully acknowledges the Web Portal of the Louisiana Legislature, Louisiana laws sub site (www.legis.state.la.us/tsrs/search.htm), as the source of the statutory text of this pamphlet. This educational publication is made available by the department at no charge.
The National Employment Law Project
For more than 45 years, NELP has sought to ensure that America upholds for all workers her promise of opportunity and economic security through work. NELP fights for policies to create good jobs, expand access to work, and strengthen protections and support for low-wage workers and the unemployed.
It publishes research that illuminates workers’ issues; promotes policies that improve workers’ lives; lends deep legal and policy expertise to important cases and campaigns; and partners with allies to advance crucial reforms.
NELP works from the ground up to build systemic change by collaborating with community partners on advocacy campaigns, developing and testing innovative policy ideas in cities and states, then scaling them up to effect change nationally. Additionally, it partners with advocacy networks grounded in the full range of stakeholders—grassroots groups and national organizations, worker centers and unions, policymakers and think tanks.
The Papillon Foundation
http://www.papillonfoundation.org/
The Papillon Foundatiuon is a 501(c)(3) charity formed in direct response to the mass incarceration of millions of men and women in jails and prisons throughout the United States. The Papillon Foundation was created to reduce these monumental social and economic inequities by rejecting public policies based on life-time punishment, humiliation, dehumanization, degradation and societal revenge and, instead, focusing on creating positive opportunities for veterans, victims of human trafficking and indigents.
The Papillon Foundation has collected diverse data on the need to reform the criminal background check industry, the negative effects of mass incarceration upon our society, the growth of private prisons, and the need to expand laws allowing for the expungement of criminal records, restoration of civil rights and the sealing of juvenile records.
Why is reform necessary? A 2012 study in the medical journal Pediatrics found that nearly one-third of Americans have been arrested by age 23. In other words, people with criminal histories make up a significant portion of the population. The number of people who have been convicted of a crime is significantly smaller, with estimates ranging from 12 million to 14 million. But ex-offenders make up a substantial number of the nation’s jobless – enough to depress the male employment rate by 1.5 percent to 1.7 percent in 2008, according to analysis by the Center for Economic Policy Research. The takeaway is that workers with criminal histories are not an anomaly in the labor force; they are an integral part of it. Any discussion of how to help the unemployed find jobs includes addressing the challenges facing people with criminal records.
The Papillon Foundation creates a compassionate opportunity for people who want to clean-up their criminal record for a fresh beginning.
The Sentencing Project
http://www.sentencingproject.org
Established in 1986, The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.
The Sentencing Project was founded to provide defense lawyers with sentencing advocacy training and to reduce the courts’ reliance on incarceration. Since that time, the Sentencing Project has become a leader in the effort to bring national attention to disturbing trends and inequities in the criminal justice system with a successful formula that includes the publication of groundbreaking research, aggressive media campaigns and strategic advocacy for policy reform.
As a result of the Sentencing Project's research, publications and advocacy, many people know that this country is the world's leader in incarceration, that one in three young black men is under control of the criminal justice system, that five million Americans can't vote because of felony convictions, and that thousands of women and children have lost welfare, education and housing benefits as the result of convictions for minor drug offenses.
The Sentencing Project is dedicated to changing the way Americans think about crime and punishment.
Seton Hall Law eRepository
Mukherji, Raj, "In Search of Redemption: Expungement of Federal Criminal Records" (2013). Student Scholarship. Paper 163. http://erepository.law.shu.edu/student_scholarship/163
This paper will first examine the problems for society and for former defendants created by those collateral consequences of criminal records and the consequent inescapable lifelong sentence. Then, this paper will analyze the disparity of expungement remedies available in the federal courts, which do not agree on their jurisdiction to consider the issue; expungement powers pursuant to federal statutes; and expungements made available by state statutes for state criminal records. Finally, this paper will compare two congressional proposals to enact federal expungement legislation and argue for the passage of a bill that combines the best elements of those proposals with effective state models.
The Times-Picayune, “Louisiana Incarcerated”
An award-winning 8-part series of investigative journalism by Cindy Chang, Scott Threlkeld, and Ryan Smith of the Times-Picayune, published in 2012. It takes a comprehensive look at the Louisiana prison system and the underlying causes of why Louisiana imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. Louisiana’s incarceration rate is nearly
five times Iran’s, 13 times China’s and 20 times Germany’s. The dynamics of politics, money, and social factors are examined to evaluate this phenomenon, and the serious long-term effects it has on the all the citizens of Louisiana.
Voice of the Experienced (V.O.T.E)
https://www.voiceoftheexperienced.org/
VOTE is a grass-roots, membership-based organization founded and operated by Formerly Incarcerated Persons (FIPs), in partnership with other community allies dedicated to ending the disenfranchisement and discrimination against FIPs.
The organization endeavors to demonstrate that FIPs, their loved ones, allies and communities can use their experiences and expertise to improve public safety in New Orleans. Through civic engagement and educating FIPs about how to maneuver the legal system, draft and advocate for policy and legislation, as well as other job and technical skills, VOTE mobilizes a strong group of leaders intent on transforming the criminal justice system.