Ohio Justice And Policy Center

Programs: The second chance project assisted over 400 people in removing criminal- records-based barriers, including record sealing, resolution of outstanding criminal debt, expungement, and certificates of qualification for employment. The second chance community legal clinic held 40 clinics and partnered with or presented to, more than ten community agencies, including: cincinnati works, urban league, community action agency, jobs and family services, black lawyers association of cincinnati, cincinnati works, greater cincinnati behavioral health services, talbert house, jobsplus (cincinnati and middletown). Through the legal clinics and our community partnerships, we screened 321 people for record criminal record sealing, had 44 cqes granted, had 2 human trafficking expungements and helped even more ohioans in removing other legal barriers to employment, licensing, housing or civic participation. The second chance project also collaborated with the social service providers, employment service providers, colleges and educational institutions, employers, re-entry centers and local courts to further establish the rights of those with criminal records who are re-entering their communities.

policy and legislative advocacy: ojpc conducts policy research, policy development, and advocacy, including a limited amount of lobbying, in service of three overarching objectives: safely and substantially reducing the size and racial disparity of the state prison population; expanding the freedom of people with criminal records to contribute to their communities; and protecting the human rights and dignity of incarcerated people. In 2016, we publicly advocated for three legislative goals: limiting the death penalty for people with severe mental illness; clarifying criminal-record expungement for human-trafficking survivors; and improving the state's existing certificate of qualification for employment (cqe) program. Though we did not achieve successful results on these three topics in 2016, much groundwork was laid for success that has already begun to happen (e. G. Cqe improvements) in 2017. We also spent several months in 2016 developing a campaign, launched in 2017, to reduce the state prison population.

human rights in prison project: protecting the human rights and dignity of incarcerated people. This project provides prisoners with legal representation and advocacy to address violations such as the denial of health care and infringement of religious rights. Part of this program includes ojpc's "constitutional litigation clinic," which we teach in partnership with northern kentucky university's salmon p. Chase college of law. We taught 7 third-year law students about civil rights litigation through real cases with our inmate clients, in both state and federal court.

exceptional legislation: the 2016 exceptional litigation program consisted of cases that were deemed "exceptional" due to their high profile nature. This category included our representation of a juvenile court judge in a case that could protect the rights of all criminal defendants. It also included our campaign for clemency for a wrongfully convicted prisoner, a case that has garnered international attention.