PSJD Public Interest News Digest – March 24, 2023
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello, interested public! Doorstop of a digest for you this week, with major news on a variety of fronts. In student debt, state lawmakers are exploring more local options as federal student loan relief looks as though it may founder. The public defender crisis continued in many places with New York City’s public defender services issued warnings they may collapse without better funding, while defenders in Alberta worried newly-allotted government funds may not be used to increase their compensation (the subject of job action last year). In Oregon, defenders brought a suit asking to be withdrawn from some cases—and for charges against people unable to obtain court-appointed counsel to be dismissed. In legal aid news, the US Department of Justice issued its 2022 White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable report and the Right to Counsel in Eviction movement made further progress in Kansas City, Boulder, and the State of Utah.
As always, these stories and more are in the links below.
Take care of one another,
Sam
Editor’s Choice(s)
Dueling Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence
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In The Hill, Dr. Jacy Reese Anthis (sociology) argued that “AIs are no longer mere tools like smartphones and electric cars, and we cannot treat them in the same way as mindless technologies[; ]we need to build a new field of digital minds research and an AI rights movement to ensure that, if the minds we create are sentient, they have their rights protected.”
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Meanwhile, in MercatorNet, Dr. Karl D. Stephan (electrical engineering) argued that “[o]ne big problem I foresee will arise from the defective anthropology that prevails in our modern culture. Human beings are different from other animals and from machines due to a difference in kind, not merely in degree. In the rush to embrace ever more impressive applications of AI, a lot of people have lost sight of this fact, if they ever believed it in the first place…A degraded view of humanity results when one assumes that there is no essential distinction between humans and advanced AI programs…And all the consequences of treating humans as machines will result from that attitude.”
Student Loans & Student Debt
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Meanwhile, at the state level, “lawmakers in many states are looking to expand their own student debt repayment programs.”
Immigration & Refugee Issues
Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring
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In Washington DC, a recent survey from the MissionSquare Research Institute found that “[j]ust over half of respondents (51%) report being very or extremely satisfied with their current employer.”
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In a Chronicle of Philanthrophy survey of nearly 700 fundraisers, “30 percent of respondents were somewhat or very dissatisfied with their organization’s diversity. In open-ended comments, respondents complained it was difficult to find ‘a diverse candidate pool’ and said that Black fundraisers hired after George Floyd’s death often ‘found themselves within hostile cultures.’ One person went so far as to say there is a ‘white supremacy culture in fundraising.’”
Access to Justice – Civil & Economic
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In Multnomah County OR, “voters will have a choice to make this May on a proposed new tax that would provide free legal representation for tenants facing eviction.”
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On “Common Law,” a podcast of the University of Virginia School of Law, Prof. Elizabeth A. Rowe argued that “[because f]acial recognition technology is so powerful and rife with the potential to be misused that regulators should treat faces like trade secrets…[a classification that] would offer consumers the kind of defense they will need in response to a significant threat to privacy[.]”
Access to Justice – Criminal
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In Colorado, Kiyomi Bolick of the Colorado State Public Defenders’ Service argued that “I no longer expect our greatest victories to be won inside of a courtroom. Rather, the future of public defense lies in unionized collective action, and the leverage it will afford us to demand true systemic change.”
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In Victoria County TX, “County Judge Ben Zeller said a new regional public defender office could be a solution [to challenges residents face getting access to a public defender].”
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In Pennsylvania, the Editorial Board of the Lewistown Sentinel argued that “[b]y allocating state funding for indigent defense for the first time in Pennsylvania, Mr. Shapiro has taken a commendable step toward making the Gideon decision a reality in the commonwealth.”
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In Brazos County TX, “the Brazos County Public Defender Office is open for business.”
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In Oakland County CA, “Paulette Loftin…has been appointed Oakland County’s first chief public defender.”
Criminal Justice Reform and Counter-Reform
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In Chicago IL, “a new study from Professor Siegler’s Federal Justice Clinic…studied the decisions of federal judges presiding over the cases of people accused of a crime who are awaiting trial and presumed innocent. Their research shows that federal judges regularly violate the very bail laws that they are sworn to uphold, locking people in jail who should be released.” (Study available here.)
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Also in Washington DC, “Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Tim Walberg (R-MI) reintroduced a bill [] that would significantly overhaul the federal government’s civil forfeiture laws.”
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Again also in Washington DC, “President Joe Biden [] nominated…a former public defender and a longtime federal prosecutor [] to the federal bench in Maryland following his pledge to appoint judges with diverse backgrounds and experiences.”
(Retractions)
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In last week’s digest, I linked to an article about problems with funding at the Georgia Public Defender’s Council. Although it was posted recently, that article was a reprint of a new story from another publication from several years ago. I apologize for this error. Thanks to the reader who called this issue to my attention!