Job o’ the Day: Sponsored Post-Grad Fellowship with Legal Action Center’s Criminal Justice Reform Project in New York City
From the PSJD job posting:
LAC seeks to sponsor an individual for a fellowship in the following project:
Challenging the Criminal Justice System’s Discriminatory Denial of Access to Medications to Treat Opiate Addiction. Scientific research has firmly established that treatment of opiate dependence with medications, such as methadone and buprenorphine (“Medication Assisted Treatment” or “MAT”), saves lives and reduces addiction and related criminal activity more effectively and at far less cost than incarceration. Yet many prisons, courts, probation and parole agencies require individuals who are successfully receiving MAT to withdraw from their medications, contrary to the recommendations of treating physicians and all other objective medical evidence. The bias against MAT generally results from misconceptions about opiate addiction and outdated stereotypes that the use of medications is “substituting one addiction for another.” Tragically, the denial of access to MAT often leads to relapse, overdose, death, increased crime, and unnecessary incarceration.
LAC issued a report, Legality of Denying Access to Medications in the Criminal Justice System, that explains why such denial of access to MAT can violate laws prohibiting disability-based discrimination. The fellow would help develop a multi-faceted campaign to end the forced withdrawal from MAT. The campaign would include fact investigation, advocacy for individuals denied access to MAT (e.g., through litigation, informal advocacy, and serving as a back-up resource for criminal defense counsel), education of the relevant stakeholders, and/or policy advocacy.
If this job sounds interesting to you, act fast – the deadline is August 12, 2013! For application instructions, view the full job listing at PSJD.org.