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NACDL is committed to enhancing the capacity of the criminal defense bar to safeguard fundamental constitutional rights.
NACDL harnesses the unique perspectives of NACDL members to advocate for policy and practice improvements in the criminal legal system.
NACDL envisions a society where all individuals receive fair, rational, and humane treatment within the criminal legal system.
NACDL’s mission is to serve as a leader, alongside diverse coalitions, in identifying and reforming flaws and inequities in the criminal legal system, and redressing systemic racism, and ensuring that its members and others in the criminal defense bar are fully equipped to serve all accused persons at the highest level.
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In Part II of the discussion on Race and Collateral Consequences, we explore how the use of “moral character” clauses, like those used in state bar licensing, can prevent individuals with convictions from participating in the legal profession. We also discuss a range of restrictions to entrepreneurial ventures that people with criminal convictions face that range from limiting a person’s ability to access capital through loans to barring participation in the legal, regulated cannabis industry.
In celebration of Second Chance Month in April, NACDL hosts the first of two discussions on race and collateral consequences. Panelists discuss the long-term impacts of criminal convictions, the specific harm that collateral consequences have caused to communities of color, and what it will take to meaningfully change this system.
Coalition letter to the Oregon state legislative leadership regarding efforts to restore voting and other rights to people convicted of felony offenses, as proposed in HB 2366 / SB 571 (2021).
Reports on restoration of rights and the collateral consequences of an arrest or conviction.
The consequences of conviction – specific legal barriers, generalized discrimination, and social stigma – have become more numerous and severe, more public, and more permanent. NACDL is proud to have several projects aimed at examining the collateral consequences of these convictions, including our 2014 report Collateral Damage, the 2018 Presidential Summit on collateral consequences, and our work to promote second chances at the state and federal level.
Organizational letter of support to Sen. Rob Portman to designate April 2017 at Second Chance Month.
In August 2018, NACDL hosted its 17th Annual State Criminal Justice Network Conference and 2nd Annual Presidential Summit in Atlanta, Georgia. The Conference examined the destructive effect that a vast network of penalties, debarments, and disabilities following a criminal conviction has on the millions of people who have come in contact with the criminal justice system. [Released June 2019]
Between 2012 and 2014, NACDL’s Task Force on Restoration of Rights and Status After Conviction embarked on a study of relief mechanisms available to those with a conviction on their record on the local, state and federal level. At an event at the Open Society Foundations in Washington, DC, NACDL released a major new report that comprehensively explored the stigma and policies relegating tens of millions of people in America to second-class status because of an arrest or conviction. [Released May 2014]
The Restoration of Rights Project (RRP) is a free online resource that includes summaries and analyses of state and federal law relating to restoration of rights and status following arrest or conviction. Maintained and regularly updated by the Collateral Consequences Resource Center (CCRC), the RRP covers four primary topics: civil and firearms rights; pardons; expungement and other record relief; and employment and licensing. CCRC’s work on the RRP and its derivative projects is supported by a grant from Arnold Ventures.
NACDL web resources related to restoration of rights and the collateral consequences of an arrest or conviction.
Panelists: Mark Holden, Senior Vice President, Koch Industries; Teresa Hodge, Co-Founder, Mission: Launch; Marc Levin, Vice President, Criminal Justice Policy, Texas Public Policy Foundation Moderator: Rick Jones, Immediate Past President, NACDL, and Executive Director, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem
Shattering the Shackles of Collateral Consequences: Exploring Moral Principles and Economic Innovations to Restore Rights and Opportunity NACDL’s 17th Annual State Criminal Justice Network Conference and 2nd Annual Presidential Summit | August 23-25, 2018 | Atlanta, GA
The undersigned organizations write to express opposition to legislation currently under consideration by your committee - SB 36, which would create a publicly available registry for residents with a prior felony conviction. NACDL is a signatory.
NACDL has undertaken an unprecedented and wide-ranging inquiry into how legal mechanisms for relief from the collateral consequences of conviction are actually working, in state and federal systems. NACDL's Task Force on Restoration of Rights and Status After Conviction has conducted a series of regional hearings (Chicago, Miami, Cleveland, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and New York) to study state and federal relief mechanisms.
