By: Steve Grumm (with big assists from Lauren Forbes and Jamie Bence)

Happy Friday, dear readers!  The bulletin was on vacation last week, so today we bring you two weeks of news.  Featured: legal services office closure threat in TN; an all-star panel tackles the civil justice gap; how could a MN state government shutdown impact indigent defense?; NY indigent defense programs will save some coin, courtesy of the state legislature; an access-to-justice conference today in Honolulu; SCOTUS says no right to counsel in civil contempt proceeding; wrongful convictions in IL have cost taxpayers millions; CA’s capital punishment program has done the same to Golden State taxpayers; also in CA, a new court diversionary program to benefit the homeless; the state high court acts to channel funding to legal services in Hawaii; NELP launches a new website for fair wage advocates; an innovative program in Oregon pairs law grads with public interest advocates to help the former build skills; a new medical-legal partnership in Arkansas; more funding woes in TN; after a state funding cut, local officials scramble to help fund Jacksonville Area Legal Aid in FL; in NC, Pisgah Legal Services loses some funding in political spat; a legal clinic in Mexico does some groundbreaking work toward promoting the rule of law; a great primer on the current state of Legal Services Corp. funding; the Missouri indigent defense crisis has victims.

• 6.24.11 – a potential legal services office closure in Tennessee.  The Cleveland Daily Bulletin reports that, due to funding pressures, Legal Aid of East Tennessee may close its Bradley County office. LAET is taking last-ditch measures to try to avoid a closure, but things don’t look great and they will make a decision sometime in 2011.  (And see below for more bad news for another Tennessee legal services program.)

• 6.22.11 – I had a chance to attend a terrific program called “Closing the Justice Gap,” hosted by the Center for American Progress.  I’m hoping to do a write-up on it later.  Suffice to say for now, though, the program panelists have all penned white papers on the access-to-justice crisis.  The papers, from different angles, look at the significant barriers facing poor people who try to access the justice system, and they propose solutions toward knocking down those barriers.  All four papers are worth a read:
•  Grounds for Objection by Joy Moses, a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress;
• The Justice Gap by Alan Houseman, executive director at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) – and speaking of CLASP, scroll down to see a terrific update on Legal Services Corporation funding from CLASP’s Linda Perle;
• When Second Best is the Best We Can Do, by Prof. Peter Edelman of Georgetown Univ. Law Center;
• Access to Evidence, by a team of authors from Harvard Law School and Yale Law School.

• 6.22.11 – the Detroit Lakes Tribune (don’t be fooled, it’s in Minnesota) reports on the question of whether a Minnesota state government shutdown, which may take effect on July 1, could mean that the criminal justice system goes awry because public defenders are not allowed to work: “The Minnesota Board of Public Defense is concerned about the effects of government shutdown on Minnesota’s judicial system, and has asked a district judge to include the public defender system with other essential state functions.  [According to an official w/ the BPD,] a shutdown on July 1 could mean that people accused of minor offenses will have to sit in jail for three days because there’s no judge to let them out. Or worse, that people accused of serious crimes will go free, either for lack of a public defender or failure by the state to meet its requirement for a timely trial.”  The piece also highlights how badly the recession has impacted the state’s defenders.  Three years ago the BPD had 421 attorneys; now it t has 347.

• 6.22.11 – the NewsLI website (from Lawwnng Eye-land, NY) reports that the state legislature passed a fee waiver that should benefit public defense programs, and the counties that fund them: New York State Senate today gave final legislative passage to legislation, sponsored by Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. (R-Merrick), to help counties save money in providing public defense services to individuals who cannot afford an attorney.  The legislation (S5474) would exempt legal aid societies from having to pay a fee to search DMV records in public defense cases. This exemption would provide savings to the counties who fund the services provided by legal aid societies.”

• 6.20.11 – um, my invitation to the access-to-justice conference taking place today in Honolulu must have been lost in the mail.  The Pacific Business News notes that the Hawaii Access to Justice Conference will “deep-dive into the major issues affecting access to civil legal services in Hawaii for underserved populations.  Among the most pressing issues to be tackled at this year’s conference is the search for more funding sources for legal services providers that cater to these groups — organizations such as Legal Aid Society of Hawaii , the Hawaii Justice Foundation and the Mediation Center of the Pacific — which were hit hard in the economic downturn when government funding for their programs was slashed.”  The Aloha State’s AtJ Commission was created in 2008.  Here’s a link to their most recent report, from 2010.  And see a few stories down for some good funding news for Hawaii legal services providers…

• 6.20.11 – the National Law Journal reports on a potential setback for Civil Gideon advocates.  In an opinion issued in the matter of Turner v. Rogers this week, SCOTUS came down against extending the right to counsel to a defendant in a civil contempt proceeding.  From NLJ (article may be pw-protected): “On the question of right to counsel [a decision having been reached on other grounds], [Justice] Breyer wrote that there was little precedent to guide the Court. For example, in a 1967 case, the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause requires states to pay for counsel in a civil ‘juvenile delinquency’ proceeding, but that case was similar to a criminal prosecution. Breyer wrote that three reasons argue against providing counsel to child-support defendants like Turner: the proceedings are ‘sufficiently straightforward’ that a lawyer isn’t necessary; the custodial parent often doesn’t have a lawyer and could be disadvantaged; and other procedural safeguards could given the defendant sufficient due process.”  The specific facts of this case are nuanced and very important to the decision.  The Turner v. Rogers decision is available in full on the SCOTUS website.

• 6.20.11 – a different National Law Journal piece reports on a study out of Chicago finding the cost to the public of wrongful convictions in Illinois over the past two decades to have topped $200 million:  “Wrongful convictions don’t just harm those who spend time in jail for crimes they didn’t commit and their families. They also come at a hefty cost to the public, according to a study by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law and the Better Government Association, a Chicago-based good-government group.
  The study concluded that wrongful convictions for violent crimes in Illinois have cost taxpayers more than $214 million since 1989. Those wrongful convictions also resulted in people later proven innocent spending more than 900 years in prison…. Researchers calculated the financial toll by tallying the cost of incarceration, compensation to those wrongfully convicted and civil litigation costs. Settlement payments represented the largest portion of the bill, at nearly $160 million. Another $31.6 million was spent to hire private attorneys to defend the government against civil suits, while jail and prison costs totaled $18.5 million. State compensation payments came to $8.2 million.”  Here’s a link to the report on the Better Government Association’s website.

• 6.20.11 – as noted above, putting the wrong people in jail costs Illinois taxpayers a lot of money.  According to a Los Angeles Times article, maintaining California’s capital punishment system is also a bit pricey: “Taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment in California since it was reinstated in 1978, or about $308 million for each of the 13 executions carried out since then, according to a comprehensive analysis of the death penalty’s costs.  The examination of state, federal and local expenditures for capital cases, conducted over three years by a senior federal judge and a law professor, estimated that the additional costs of capital trials, enhanced security on death row and legal representation for the condemned adds $184 million to the budget each year…. The authors outline three options for voters to end the current reality of spiraling costs and infrequent executions: fully preserve capital punishment with about $85 million more in funding for courts and lawyers each year; reduce the number of death penalty-eligible crimes for an annual savings of $55 million; or abolish capital punishment and save taxpayers about $1 billion every five or six years.”

• 6.18.11 -also in California, the Marin Independent Journal reports on a new, diversionary program to help the homeless deal with minor legal infractions outside of court:  “The Marin Community Court, a collaboration among Legal Aid of Marin, the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin County and the Marin County Superior Court, has held three sessions [since its launch in April].”  One of the program’s driving motivations is helping the homeless and those struggling with housing to avoid the spiral of accumulating legal fines and penalties that begins when they can not afford to resolve a problem at the outset.  The Community Court program includes one-on-one counseling sessions between a participant and an attorney, and then a “hearing” which often results in sentencing that focuses on treatment and support services rather than sanctions.  (A note to the law student readers who are interested in postgraduate fellowship proposals:  If I were in your shoes I would give serious thought to proposals that help poor people more efficiently navigate the justice system, like either diversionary programs or courthouse resource centers for pro se litigants.  There are a lot of people these days who can’t afford a lawyer, and there are a lot of courthouse officials looking for ways to keep the wheels of justice turning smoothly by helping these people navigate the system as efficiently, and as cheaply, as possible.)

• 6.17.11 – TheHonolulu Star Advertiser reports that Hawaiian legal services providers are due to benefit from class-action residual funds: “A rule adopted by the Hawaii Supreme Court helps clear the way for money left over from class-action lawsuits to be given to nonprofit groups that provide legal services to the poor. The rule takes effect July 1 and provides guidance on how to distribute money from lawsuits after the plaintiffs, attorney fees and expenses have been paid. Those residual funds include money for plaintiffs who cannot be located or who don’t file claims….  The groups that would qualify for the money under the high court rule include the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, the University of Hawaii Elder Law Program, Voluntary Legal Services Hawaii and the Domestic Violence Action Center.”

• 6.17.11 – the National Employment Law Project has launched a  new website – Raise the Minimum Wage – focused on, well, raising the minimum wage.  It’s an easy-to-navigate site with a broad array of resources, news items, and data for fair wage advocates or those who wish to learn more about the cause.

• 6.17.2011- The ABA Journal reports that a new program in Oregon for recently graduated lawyers is receiving overwhelming response. Announced last month, the Practical Skills through Public Service Program pairs Oregon law school graduates with public interest attorneys, in hopes of giving young practitioners the opportunity to learn by doing. The Oregonian reports that this program is part of a larger effort in the state to prepare new law grads for solo practice, in light of diminishing offers from law firms.

• 6.17.2011- A new medical-legal partnership in Arkansas aims to improve access to healthcare and education for at-risk children in the state. Walmart and Legal Aid of Arkansas have teamed up to provide legal assistance to children and families staying at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, providing holistic advice and guidance to help children and families get back on track. KTHV notes: “Direct access to legal services will help many families address obstacles to good health and continuing recovery. Attorneys can help families who need utility service recovery for the child’s home care, assistance negotiating with a landlord over the environment of an apartment or even special educational testing.”

• 6.16.2011- Just four attorneys will remain to assist clients at Northeast Tennessee Legal Aid after the end of this month. Federal budget cuts coupled with dwindling grants and donations have caused the office to lay off one third of its attorneys, including an associate director, according to TriCities News.

• 6.15.2011- The Jacksonville Daily Record calls the new ethics commission now in place for the city government “a promise kept.” In a unanimous vote after several months of heated debate, the city council voted to reinstate an ethics code and ultimately create an independent Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight. In the same session, the council considered a bill to impose a $50 court fee to benefit Jacksonville Legal Aid, a measure supported by Fourth Circuit Judge Donald Moran and intended to help offset decreased funding from the Florida Bar Foundation and the state legislature. “The funds from the court fee would be used to provide free legal services for the disadvantaged through JALA, including services to domestic violence victims, the mentally ill or disabled, the un-deremployed or unemployed, residents facing landlord/tenant issues or homelessness, foreclosure-related educational, mediation and defense programs, and the elderly.” The council will vote on the measure during its June 28^th meeting.

• 6.15.11 Sadly, in North Carolina, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners voted to discontinue county funding for nonprofit Pisgah Legal Services at the request of Chairman Mike Edney. PLS provides free civil legal aid to help low-income people avoid homelessness, escape domestic violence, access health care and meet other basic needs.  At the meeting, Edney, an attorney, said PLS “does provide some benefit to our community,” particularly in the area of domestic violence, but wanted to withdraw the $16,745 in county funding for 2011-12 partly because PLS sometimes “oversteps its bounds,” such as getting attorney’s fees out of landlords.

• 6.14.11 – the Los Angeles Times profiles the work of a novel legal clinic in Mexico City, through which law students have achieved groundbreaking results for their clients in a justice system which has a tenuous relationship with the rule of law: “The clinic is part of a Mexico City university called the Center for Economic Research and Teaching, or CIDE. The center’s legal studies program combines law school training with hands-on public interest advocacy, a novel field in a nation where many attorneys are poorly trained and their best weapon is often a bribe…. Students, guided by [Professor Javier] Angulo and another staff lawyer, work on the cases for free. Many of them probe uncharted terrain and have yielded legal precedents or led to new laws, such as one easing the penalty for abortions.  As Mexico works to cultivate a fully functioning democracy, the 6-year-old clinic is an effort to modernize a system long viewed as a factory of injustice.”

• 6.14.11 CLASP’s Legal Services Corporation update reiterates the uncertainty and disconcerting impact that the proposed cuts would have. LSC has asked Congress to appropriate $516.5 million for FY 2012.  President Obama’s budget request sought $450 million for LSC.  However, during the April 5, 2011, hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) on the FY 2012 LSC budget, there was again discussion of returning LSC funding to the FY 2008 level — all in the name of deficit reduction.  CLASP is working to increase the LSC funding level in the Senate and is hopeful that the Senate will adopt a funding level close to the President’s request of $450 million.   given the slow pace of events to date, and the need for Congress to act to raise the debt ceiling before August 2, there is unlikely to be a conclusive action on LSC’s FY 2012 funding before September.

• 6.14.11 In Missouri, Jared Blacksher is caught in the middle of a public defender debate.  Last year, Blacksher, 22, reached a plea deal with prosecutors that would have put him in a drug treatment program.  In July 2010, Blacksher was booked into the Christian County Jail on charges of burglary and forgery. He and prosecutors reached a plea agreement that would have given him 120 days in a drug treatment program in the Missouri Department of Corrections, which would have ended in January. However, he never got a chance to enter the program — his was one of the first cases the Missouri Supreme Court put on hold in 2010 during debate over the Missouri public defender system, putting him in jail. Assistant Prosecutor Ben Miller said Blacksher’s case is an unfortunate one that could have been prevented had he been able to take advantage of a plea agreement last year.

By Lauren Forbes

Texas Appleseed, a public interest law center, seeks a staff attorney. This position works under the direction of the Legal Director and the Executive Director to implement Texas Appleseed’s programs on Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline and Improving the Foster Care Court & Legal System.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

• Conduct legal and programmatic research and advocacy
• Draft policy recommendations, reports, presentations, correspondence and other documents
• Assist in developing and implementing legislative and policy strategies
• Assist in litigation and administrative complaints
• Conduct presentations for judges, agency officials, stakeholders, policy makers and/or the public
• Work with local community partners across the state
• Testify at hearings, legislative meetings or other events
• Represent Appleseed at meetings, forums and other events
• Assist in implementing media outreach
• Coordinate with pro bono partners, advocates, community partners and other stakeholders
• Prepare and present programmatic goals, plan of implementation and policy recommendations to appropriate stakeholders and the public.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

By Lauren Forbes and Jamie Bence

Howdy, folks! Every Thursday, the PSLawNet Blog posts a compilation of some of our favorite posts from the public interest blogosphere. Here’s what looks good this week:

• Many new law grads might be thinking about their options for loan repayment, and Equal Justice Works has some options to look into if you’re trying to decide how to manage your debt.
• The Legal Aid Society of DC’s blog breaks down this week’s Supreme Court Decision rejecting right to counsel for child support respondents, and why the decision could have an unexpected impact in the long term.
• DePaul Law Center’s Career Services Blog features some interesting public defender resources for students considering a career in criminal law.
• In a time when government funding and private grants are continuing to plummet, 275,00 nonprofits have lost their tax-exempt status, the Not for Profit/Exempt Organizations Blog explains.
• Technola breaks down the results of a new study and explains why online resources are more important for Legal Aid Providers than ever before.
• The ACLU Blog reports on the staggering number of incarcerated persons who committed crimes while they were children, and efforts to reform the system for juvenile offenders.

By Lauren Forbes

Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc.® (LawNY®) seeks an Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow (“AmeriCorps Legal Fellow”) to be housed at our Ithaca, New York office. Based on Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps’ guidelines, the term of service will begin in early August, 2011 for one year (with a possible renewal for one more year).

POSITION DESCRIPTION: The AmeriCorps Legal Fellows housed at LawNY®’s Ithaca office will help build capacity by strengthening LawNY®’s relationship with volunteer law students and pro bono attorneys, and by providing direct legal services to clients with prisoner re-entry, employment law, and matrimonial law issues. The AmeriCorps Legal Fellow will be the primary liaison between LawNY® and Cornell University Law School, and will work cooperatively with the other AmeriCorps Legal Fellows to create placement opportunities at LawNY® and other public interest law firms, and to recruit volunteers, across New York State and nationally, to fill those positions. The AmeriCorps Legal Fellow will staff the Ithaca divorce and prisoner re-entry clinics, will provide direct representation in matrimonial cases, prisoner reentry cases, employment law cases, and other cases arising from the clinics, and will collaborate with a number of community organizations in the Ithaca area that are working on these issues. It is estimated that the Fellow’s time will be spent 30% on community outreach and clinics, 30% on pro bono recruitment and management, and 40% on case management and direct representation.

LawNY® is a not-for-profit law firm established to provide access to the justice system to lowincome people and other vulnerable populations who have civil legal problems. LawNY® serves a 14 county area in central and western New York through seven regional offices located in Geneva, Ithaca, Rochester, Elmira, Bath, Olean and Jamestown. In 2010, LawNY® closed 6,668 legal cases benefitting a total of 15,901 people. LawNY® presently operates a wide variety of civil legal services projects, including a disability advocacy project, a seniors legal services project, a homelessness intervention project, a domestic violence project, a foreclosure prevention project, a pro se divorce clinic program, an employment law/prisoner reentry project, and a nutrition outreach and education project.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

By Jamie Bence

A new piece from the National Law Journal reports on a study out of Chicago finding the cost to the public of wrongful convictions in Illinois over the past two decades to have topped $200 million. The National Law Journal concludes:

Wrongful convictions don’t just harm those who spend time in jail for crimes they didn’t commit and their families. They also come at a hefty cost to the public, according to a study by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law and the Better Government Association, a Chicago-based good-government group.

Here are a few of the most striking statistics from the report:

• The study concluded that wrongful convictions for violent crimes in Illinois have cost taxpayers more than $214 million since 1989 (Researchers calculated the financial toll by tallying the cost of incarceration, compensation to those wrongfully convicted and civil litigation costs).
• Those wrongful convictions also resulted in people later proven innocent spending more than 900 years in prison.
• Settlement payments represented the largest portion of the bill, at nearly $160 million.
• Another $31.6 million was spent to hire private attorneys to defend the government against civil suits,
• Jail and prison costs for wrongful convictions totaled $18.5 million.
• State compensation payments came to $8.2 million.

For more of the alarming results, check out the Better Government Association’s report on their website.

By Lauren Forbes

The Innocence Project, Inc., seeks a Senior Counsel/Deputy Executive Director (new position), reporting directly to the Executive Director, to manage and expand its litigation and policy work. The Senior Counsel will be responsible for the overall management of the following program areas: client intake and evaluation; client legal representation; social work; research; strategic litigation; and public policy reform.  The Senior Counsel will ensure the effectiveness and quality of work in these areas while leading a brilliant, creative, and hard-working team of experienced professionals who share a deep commitment to their clients and to the reform of the criminal justice system. This position is based in New York City.

The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld as a legal clinic at the Cardozo School of Law/Yeshiva University.  The Project, with fifty staff,   represents prisoners nationwide for whom post-conviction DNA testing can prove innocence, and seeks to redress the underlying causes of wrongful conviction through systemic criminal justice reform.  The Project has been involved in freeing the majority of the 271 people nationwide who have served an average of 13 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.  It has helped pass more than 70 laws in 30 states to make the criminal justice system more fair and more just.  The Innocence Project is expanding and deepening its policy work to more thoroughly address the fundamental problems in the criminal justice system, while it continues to represent and free the innocent.  (For more information about the Innocence Project, Inc., please go to www.innocenceproject.org.)

Essential qualities include:

• Passionate commitment to social justice and to the Innocence Project’s goals, mission, and values;
• Collegial, collaborative management style and demonstrated commitment to the value and power of teams and staff;
• Demonstrated success in managing lawyers in fast-paced litigation or policy reform effort; and
• A sense of humor

Qualifications

Candidates must have a law degree, be admitted to practice law, and have litigation experience.  Candidates with at least 10 years of supervisory and management experience in a legal or advocacy organization will be at a clear advantage, especially those with demonstrated skills in managing both attorneys and other professionals.  Expertise in the field of criminal justice is highly desirable.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

We continue PSLawNet’s Expert Opinion series with an interview with Seema Ahmad, a staff attorney at Advancement Project.  She works on the “Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track” team to end policies that over-criminalize youth and push them out of school.  In addition to speaking about the substance of the work she does, Seema provides insights into professional networking, building interpersonal relationships, and being flexible about the beginning of a career in public interest. Thanks, Seema!

Seema, tell us generally about the work of Advancement Project. Can you also talk to us about the work you to on a day-to-day basis, specifically for the program you work on?

Advancement Project is a civil rights organization committed to advancing universal opportunity and a just democracy.  AP specifically seeks to support and amplify the work of community groups and coalitions throughout the country and to support the national movement for social justice.

Specifically, I work within our “Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track” project where we seek to combat overly harsh school discipline practices as well as other policies that criminalize youth within the public school system and that set them on a path toward incarceration instead of education.  As an organization committed to racial justice, this “school to jail” track is particularly disturbing in that it disproportionately affects low-income youth and youth of color.  The exciting thing about my work is that it varies greatly depending on the day.  I essentially work in partnership with a number of community organizations and on any given day, I may be at a school district meeting in Philly or working with organizers in Denver to shoot a video depicting the school-to-jail-track.  When I’m in my office, I’m often  reviewing school policies and state laws on school discipline and strategizing with organizers about their campaigns to end the school-to-jail-track.

You started your career as a fellow at the Open Society Institute, and then transitioned to Advancement Project.  Could you tell us how that process played out for you and any advice you found helpful for new attorneys interested in public interest work?

Immediately following law school, I was on a 1-year fellowship at OSI which I received from the Human Rights Institute at Georgetown Law.  I worked on post-9/11 civil liberties issues and had an incredible experience.  As my fellowship was coming to a close, I depended heavily on my OSI supervisors to both keep me in mind as they heard of job openings and to serve as references.  Obviously, finding a public interest job is incredibly difficult and it helps if you have mentors and supervisors that may know of opportunities that don’t have formal postings or that are willing to make a phone call for you,  It can make all the difference.

Are there particular activities that you undertook in law school that gave you the skills and abilities you utilize now?

Aside from learning traditional legal skills, being an active student leader on campus was tremendously helpful.  Much of the coalition work we do at AP or the work we do with our community partners is not completely unlike organizing and I feel like my experience in school gave me at least a small window into the amazing work of our community partners.  In addition, I feel very lucky to have taken some incredible classes on organizing, critical race theory, and race and the criminal justice system that made me well-prepared for my current job.

Can you give us three pieces of advice you’d offer law students or recent graduates who are on public interest career paths to arm them in their job search?

1)     I honestly don’t think I have any pearls of wisdom that folks haven’t read in a handbook or heard a million times over.  I think the job search process is extremely difficult and stressful.  I know this isn’t concrete advice geared toward getting a job specifically, but I would say it’s important to not get down on yourself and treat yourself well!

2)     Don’t be afraid to cold-call people at potential places of employment and try to set up a time to chat – even if by phone.  I think in general that kind of enthusiasm can only be seen as a positive thing.

3)     I think expanding the search to all possible things you could be interested in is important.  Sometimes we have a fixed vision of what we want to do or what area of law we want to work in but I do think it’s important to be flexible and allow opportunities you wouldn’t have thought of to surprise you.

Steering back to your work for our final question: some have speculated that one of the recession’s silver linings is that fact that states have been forced to visit the impact that mass incarceration has on their budgets as they must pay for heavily crowded incarceration systems.  Have you seen any signs that post-recession fiscal considerations may compel states to revisit the policy debates about non-violent crimes that incarcerate many young people?

This is an excellent and very timely question.   The resounding answer is yes.  One of our main arguments at AP is that harsh school discipline and the criminalization of youth has extraordinarily high costs (in addition to being ineffective when it comes to promoting school safety and academic achievement).  There is a host of proven interventions that help youth grow into productive, healthy adults, that create safe school environments, and that improve academic achievement.  Over the long run, these interventions certainly cost less than incarcerating our youth for relatively minor misbehavior in school.  After all, the latter approach results in not only costs emanating from the juvenile justice system, but broader costs to communities and to society at large.

By Lauren Forbes

In a new study, a senior judge and law professor examine rising costs of the death penalty in California. As the LA Times reports, without major reforms, they conclude, capital punishment will continue to exist mostly in theory while exacting an untenable cost.  The study reveals that the death penalty costs California $184 million per year.

The examination of state, federal and local expenditures for capital cases, conducted over three years by a senior federal judge and a law professor, estimated that the additional costs of capital trials, enhanced security on death row and legal representation for the condemned adds $184 million to the budget each year.

The study’s authors, U.S. 9th Circuit Judge Arthur L. Alarcon and Loyola Law School professor Paula M. Mitchell, also forecast that the tab for maintaining the death penalty will climb to $9 billion by 2030, when San Quentin’s death row will have swollen to well over 1,000.

In their research for “Executing the Will of the Voters: A Roadmap to Mend or End the California Legislature’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Death Penalty Debacle,” Alarcon and Mitchell obtained California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records that were unavailable to others who have sought to calculate a cost-benefit analysis of capital punishment.

The bottom line is that unless profound reforms are made by lawmakers who have failed to adopt previous recommendations for rescuing the system, Alarcon and Mitchell find, capital punishment will continue to exist mostly in theory while exacting an untenable cost.

A fact that might surprise some is that a death penalty prosecution costs up to 20 times as much as a life-without-parole case.

Federal judges find fault with about 70% of the California death row prisoners’ convictions and send them back to the trial courts for further proceedings, the report noted. That could make the state vulnerable to charges of denying inmates due process, the authors warned.

The report also says the corrections department and the Legislative Analyst’s Office failed to honestly assess and disclose to the public what 30 years of tough-on-crime legislation and ballot measures actually cost.

“We hope that California voters, informed of what the death penalty actually costs them, will cast their informed votes in favor of a system that makes sense,” the report concludes.

By Lauren Forbes

It is that time of year again.  Fellowship application season is here.  In that vein, OneJustice seeks an Americorps Legal Fellow to work in San Francisco, CA.

OneJustice believes that justice is a right for all. Every day we work with lawyers and law students to empower California’s most vulnerable people–people who need legal help just to gain their most basic civil rights and to meet essential human needs. These are rights and needs most of us take for granted, like food, housing, health care, and education. If these are denied, many of us can fight for them ourselves, but low-income people often need legal help to obtain these basic life necessities. OneJustice makes sure the help is there when it’s needed. OneJustice is hiring an Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow (“AmeriCorps Legal Fellow”) for our San Francisco office. Based on Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps guidelines, the term of service will begin in early August of 2011 for one year (with a possible renewal for one more year).

POSITION DESCRIPTION: The OneJustice AmeriCorps Legal Fellow will work on a local project in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento regions, matching law students with flexible and varied volunteer projects at legal aid agencies and court-based programs. By creating new and creative pro bono opportunities, the AmeriCorps Legal Fellow meets the needs of programs and addresses the ever-growing justice gap affecting low-income clients in need. Because OneJustice does not provide direct legal services, this position does not require the direct practice of law. The AmeriCorps Legal Fellow reports to OneJustice’s Pro Bono Program Attorney. Some travel is required, including attendance at national conferences and participation in our Justice Bus® trips. This position allows the AmeriCorps Legal Fellow to connect lawyers and law students who can help with Californians in need.

To view the full job listing, go to PSLawNet (login required).

By: Steve Grumm

The Legal Services Corporation, a quasi-governmental entity which channels federal funding to civil legal services providers throughout the U.S. states and territories and which is the single largest source of funding for legal services for the poor, is facing the potential for sizeable cuts that will force staff cuts and result in fewer clients served.  LSC and its 130+ grantee organizations are sitting squarely, and uncomfortably, between the metaphorical rock and hard place.  At precisely the time when some federal legislators are discussing large-scale cuts to numerous federal programs in the name of fiscal austerity, swollen numbers of poor people and families – the unemployed, children, and victims of domestic violence – are seeking free legal aid to help them out of crisis.  So as Congress is gearing up for debate on a Fiscal Year 2012 funding plan, LSC grantees face the grim prospect of having to do more with considerably less – a minefield they’ve already been traversing because other, non-federal funding sources have depleted in the recession’s wake.

Linda Perle at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) has authored a very helpful LSC funding update, offering the particulars about what has happened to LSC funding in recent budget debates and which direction the winds are blowing in as Congressional hearings on LSC’s funding are set to begin in July.  Some noteworthy language from Linda’s piece:

Concern abounds regarding LSC funding for FY 2012, which will begin on Oct. 1, 2011.  FY 2011 funding totals $404.19 million, which represents a $15.81 million cut from LSC’s FY 2010 funding level of $420 million.  The House and Senate adopted this amount after the House passed an FY 2011 Continuing Resolution (CR) that would have  cut $70 million for LSC from its FY 2010 level, and reduced LSC’s funding to FY 2008 levels.  Under the House version of the CR, all of the $70 million cut would have come out of LSC’s basic field grants that support the 136 legal aid programs providing basic legal assistance to low-income people across the country.

LSC has asked Congress to appropriate $516.5 million for FY 2012.  President Obama’s budget request sought $450 million for LSC.  However, during the April 5, 2011, hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) on the FY 2012 LSC budget, there was again discussion of returning LSC funding to the FY 2008 level — all in the name of deficit reduction.  The FY 2012 House budget resolution (the Ryan Bill), which proposes $6 trillion in overall budget cuts over 10 years and an overhaul of entitlement programs, did not include any specific cuts for LSC or other agencies, but also suggested that funding of discretionary programs should be cut to FY 2008 levels. 

Subcommittee mark-up on the House 2012 CJS bill is scheduled for July 7, followed by full committee mark-up on July 13.  We anticipate that the House will cut LSC’s overall FY 2012 budget to its FY 2008 level of $340.49 million.  However, it is not clear whether this budget will follow the FY 2008 allocation among LSC’s programs and divisions, providing approximately $332.4 million for basic field grant funding, or will do as was proposed in House version of the 2011 CR and take all of the cuts out of the funds allocated to basic field grants, leaving only $324.4 million for basic field grant funding.