Our Work
LEGAL CLINICS
Colorado attorney Rhonda Y. Ntepp, Esq. has joined the Institute for People with Criminal Records as General Counsel-Legal Clinics Director. Beginning in the Denver Five Points neighborhood, the Institute will begin opening legal clinics to serve the needs exclusively of people with criminal records and to train felons and probationers as paralegals. Advocacy for pardons, parole hearings, social security disability, and through select attorneys certificates of rehabilitation in available states.
PUBLIC POLICY & ADVOCACY
Overview: Academic support for social justice policy agendas implemented in all three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial, is a core activity for advancement of the Institute’s mission, and will take many forms and follow many paths as they emerge over time.
Present initiatives: (a) Amici Curiae for People with Criminal Records and (b) Move-the-Box by Executive Order Initiative.
The PCR ACADEMY™: from GED to PhD™
Overview: This program is intended continually to develop and provide affordable access to innovative, primary, secondary and higher education, entrepreneurship, business and professional training, both online and in classrooms. The goal for this program is to address the severe lack of quality educational resources for people with criminal records in and outside of prisons, and of course, the cost of such resources even if available. The premise of this program is that we can partner and collaborate with accredited institutions or develop affordable, accreditable courses at existing institutions of higher learning that are tailor made for people with criminal records.
Present Initiatives: (a) Critical Thinking is Critical™ and Great Books in Prison™, and (b) Civic Engagement for Community Service™
PEOPLE with CRIMINAL RECORDS UNITED™
Overview: Our affiliate lobbying organization.
ANNUAL SYMPOSIA: Exploring “Equal Justice Under Law”
Overview: The Institute’s purpose is to “advance equal justice under law,” but “equal justice under law” for people who lack a criminal record can be, and usually is, very different than for people who do have a criminal record. The Rule of Law or uniform application of a law intended to apply to everyone often yields unequal results; often inadvertently, but sometimes arguably by design. In collaboration with key consortium partners, we will conduct regional symposia, in California, the East Coast, and alternating in Chicago and elsewhere, to explore and hopefully achieve new or better ways to insure “equal justice under law” for people with criminal records and for victims.
Present Initiative: Victims Rights and Relations
It is a major goal of the Institute to bring victim rights advocates and other stakeholders from a wide spectrum within the criminal justice communities to the policy making table, and we consider victim rights advocates key stakeholders and key participants in our Equal Justice Under Law Annual Symposia
Programs in development
Construction for the Common Good™
More than a social enterprise that creates “green” collar jobs: on-the-job training and construction of sustainable, “green” housing by and for people with criminal records. The end result will be a portfolio of income producing properties that house hard-to-house populations, including children aging out of foster care, which portfolio will be owned and managed by PCR L3C, a social enterprise limited liability company.
Pathways for People with Criminal Records™
The intent, goal and design of this program is to combine key aspects of successful programming from the worlds of personal development, substance abuse counseling, anger management, and other programming that can address in one evolving program the specific needs of people with criminal records who are incarcerated, or in their post-sentence reentry and rehabilitation.
Public Education and Communications
TV, Radio, Print, Social Media and Networking to advance our mission.
