Author: matkins

This summer I interned at Partners for Justice, a non-profit organization that operates within the Delaware Public Defender’s Office. The work of this organization is centered around advocacy on behalf of our clients who face issues with access to housing, public benefits, employment, medical care and other civil legal needs. While we can imagine what it must be like to navigate these complicated bureaucracies with little to no agency, most do not experience this often frustrating and tiresome process first-hand. This summer, I was able to see the connection between involvement in criminal legal issues and civil legal issues. I was able to witness the detrimental collateral consequences that dig our clients further into poverty.

Through working directly with clients who are not only facing criminal charges, but civil legal issues as well, I learned the importance of early intervention, holistic defense and patience. Far too often, our involvement with our clients came too late–they already had lost their home, already had lost their benefits or already had been arrested. That is why early intervention is key to prevent further consequences of being poor and slipping deeper into financial and social instability.

While all of our clients are facing criminal charges, most are forced to deal with civil legal issues as well. This is why a holistic defense–one which serves clients on their drug possession charge as well as their housing eviction–combines criminal and civil law to best serve our clients. When dealing with a legal system that emphasizes punishment and control over justice, happy outcomes are rare and come only after weeks, months or even years of advocacy. This is where patience comes in. However, this constant advocacy is necessary for any change to be possible.

During my summer internship, I had opportunities to make direct impact in our clients’ lives, as well as a more general impact on the Partners for Justice organization. I was able to work on several different projects as well as working directly with clients in the public defender’s office. I conducted research on various housing options, expungement proceedings and mental health treatment in the Delaware area, as well as research into retrieving property from police custody. This helped inform the full-time advocates so they could better serve their clients. My client work included helping develop re-entry plans for people exiting prison as well as helping various clients receive essential benefits such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps). Some of my most impactful work included interviewing people for biographical information who were seeking a public defender to examine their case and to assess other civil legal issues they might be facing.

Much of this work is centered around resources. With a lack of affordable housing, job opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals, or quality mental health treatment, resources can often be challenging to find. At the beginning of this internship, I found myself often lost with where to go for help with clients. However, as the summer progressed, I was able to learn in great detail about where and how to find the best resources for our clients. By developing relationships with community partners, I was able to better refer clients to community resources.

For anyone who wants to pursue a career in public defense work or civil legal aid, I’d advise them to be persistent and to try not to get dismayed by the constant injustices in the legal system. This work is often entrenched in complicated bureaucracies. It is important to be persistent when advocating for a client because any meaningful change will not come easily. This work can often be depressing, frustrating and disheartening. However, with 80% of people without access to affordable legal representation, this work is more important than ever. We must not let the everyday injustices stop us from working towards a common goal of equity and justice.

During my sophomore year at Brandeis, I took a class with Professor Mischler called “A  Global History of Prisons” that examined the historical link between slavery and mass incarceration we see today. As part of my work with Partners for Justice, I often visit the prisons in Delaware to meet with our clients facing issues with mental health treatment, re-entry services, or case outcomes. As I speak with our clients and observe the prison floors with hundreds of inmates dressed in all white, it is clear that the majority of those in prison are people of color, have mental health issues and/or come from a low socioeconomic background. 

It is imperative that we understand and recognize the true nature of our nation’s history of crime and punishment of people of color and low-income people because the parallels today are disturbingly apparent.  Through a misguided war on drugs that disproportionately targets people of color, we have increased criminality as a means of oppression and enslaving people of color behind bars. According to Michelle Alexander, more black men are behind bars or under the supervision of the criminal justice system than there were enslaved in 1850. She writes that, “…denying African Americans citizenship was deemed essential to the formation of the original union.  Hundreds of years later, America is still not an egalitarian democracy.” Whether through convict labour or mass incarceration, under the guise of crime prevention, we have continued for almost two hundred years to rationalize the bondage of poor black men and women. The evidence is so clear and the damage so deep, yet we have not mustered up the will to acknowledge and change our criminal justice practices. History continues to repeat itself.   

When thinking about this history, it is easier to contextualize how mass incarceration plagues this nation today and how organizations like Partners for Justice must respond to these injustices. Principles of due process forbid us from physically shackling prisoners to walls, but solitary confinement and other penal practices allow us to metaphorically shackle prisoners inside their own minds. This devolution reflects America’s shortsighted and reactionary penal policy, as well as a general disregard for the welfare of the people (disproportionately men of color, many of whom suffer from intellectual and psychiatric disabilities) who populate our prisons.  This is why organizations like Partners for Justice and the Delaware Public Defenders advocate for systemic change in the criminal justice system. 

As I think about my internship, I try to consider the historical influences which has made today’s legal system so oppressive. Following the end of chattel slavery, Southern states looked towards incarceration as a mechanism of bondage and suppression. In order to incarcerate large numbers of newly freed black people, Southern states had to increase criminality through the use of black codes. As part of these black codes, vagrancy laws were enacted to increase criminality among black populations. Of course, these laws that increased criminality were justified as a war on crime. Vagrancy laws and convict labour were not only economically beneficial, but an extension of the bondage aimed at preventing any rise in black political power. As Michelle Alexander notes in The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, convict labour and vagrancy laws were used to “…protect their economic, political, and social interests in a world without slavery.” We see a similar system of oppression and exploitation in our criminal legal system today. It is up to groups like Partners for Justice and Public Defender Offices across the country to fight for an end to increased criminality and unjust punishment. 

Partners for Justice is a nonprofit organization that operates within the Delaware Public Defender’s Office. The organization’s mission is to prevent or limit the harm of collateral consequences of justice system involvement. We serve clients of the Public Defender’s Office, who are indigent individuals with current or past criminal justice system involvement. Partners for Justice staff serve as advocates to help clients navigate bureaucracies to improve their access to housing, public benefits, employment, medical care and other civil legal needs.

I chose this particular internship because I have always been passionate about the intersection between civil and criminal law and how the access and quality of legal representation can alter someone’s life completely. This internship serves as the perfect opportunity to learn the benefits of pairing civil and criminal legal representation and advocacy in order to best serve our clients.

In the United States, 80% of the civil legal needs of poor people are going unmet— creating what experts refer to as the justice gap. Without legal representation and advocacy, people in poverty face a greater risk of unjustly losing their homes, their children, and their public benefits. Often, the most vulnerable individuals among those in poverty are those who have been involved in the criminal legal system. With a single arrest, charge, or conviction, people who are disenfranchised face further challenges with complicated bureaucracies that can drastically alter their lives. Partners for Justice places advocates to work directly with clients and community organizers to help them obtain quality legal representation and prevent collateral injustices with the criminal legal system.

As an intern for the Public Defender’s Office and the Partners for Justice organization, I conduct client interviews to meet directly with clients facing criminal prosecution in order to obtain their case information and scan for possible civil legal issues that could arise because of their arrest. I also work directly with clients who are in prison, on probation, or facing possible incarceration to help them navigate court-ordered programs, find housing, employment, or obtain public benefits. Most of my responsibilities involve working with the advocates to meet clients in prison or in court to assist them with civil legal issues or bureaucratic challenges.

In addition to this client-centered work, I conduct research on affordable housing, employment opportunities, expungement processes, property retrieval and other services that can help our clients who are at risk of facing repeated injustices.

My work this summer helps the Partners for Justice organization better serve their clients and help them obtain the correct legal documents and qualify for life-changing services such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Medicaid, or public housing. My work at the Public Defender’s Office helps assist low-income clients who are seeking legal representation for criminal cases.

Organizations like Partners for Justice are crucial in the fight for justice because they are taking smaller steps to advocate individually for underserved populations by providing direct representation. However, they are also taking bigger steps to fight for systemic changes that will help create a more just society moving forward. Partners for Justice directly advocates for criminal justice reform in the legislature, as well as increased affordable housing and other public policy issues that would benefit our clients.

Smaller change or progress comes in the form of a client obtaining a job, keeping their children, staying in their apartment or receiving necessary medical care. However, larger change comes in the way of policy changes that limit the number of arrests made in low-income communities or the ways we choose to rehabilitate instead of punish.