Public Policy and 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.
Amici Curiae for People with Criminal Records
Friends of the court in select state and federal appeals that affect the interests of people with criminal records, primarily in cases that affect reentry and rehabilitation rights and opportunities.
June 16, 2011: The Illinois Supreme Court ruled unanimously in People v. Hawkins that it was an “absurd” and “unjust” reading of applicable law for the Department of Corrections to claim the right to garnish inmate work assignment wages at 100%, and not what the legislature intended.
The Illinois Supreme Court granted the motion of the Institute for People with Criminal Records to file an Amicus Curiae brief in the case of People ex. rel Department of Corrections v. Kensley Hawkins, in which the Institute opposed the Department of Corrections’ legal efforts to attach and garnish inmate wages at 100% – as if to make inmates legal slaves. The case was argued in the Supreme Court on March 15, 2011. You can watch the oral argument here.
The case was widely covered in the media and blogs: (e.g., Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, NewsOne for Black America, Fox Chicago News, Black Voices, St. Louis Public Radio, NBC Chicago, WJBC AM 1230.)
The Institute was generously represented pro bono by the Chicago law firm Neal Gerber & Eisenberg LLP. Here is the Institute’s Hawkins Amicus Curiae Brief.
For our next amicus curiae brief, we are presently investigating good-time credit litigation cases in California, primarily.
Move the Box by Executive Order.
Our goal is to advocate for as many Governors nationwide to issue an executive order akin to the Ban-the-Box policies implemented in many municipal venues, county and a few state governments. We feel Move-the-Box is a better term to describe the elimination of the criminal history inquiry box on employment applications, and to move the inquiry to a point at which a person with a criminal record has made it past the preliminary application stage and will be given an interview.
June, 2011. In “Looking for a job? Hope you don’t have any prior convictions,” Medill Reports: Chicago discusses the role of the Institute for People with Criminal Records in the Move-the-Box by Executive Order initiative.
The Journal for Social Justice at De Paul University College of Law recently published “Moving the Box” by Executive Order in Illinois | De Paul Journal for Social Justice, 4 DePaul J. for Soc. Just. 1:17 Fall 2010 (by Michael Sweig and Melissa McClure.).
