Community Defense Programs

LJC has supported several district public defender offices effort to expand the traditional model of defense delivery into one that provides the capacity and interdisciplinary skills of defenders to address relevant client issues that may lie beyond the immediate confines of a criminal complaint.

This transformation can employ a diverse number of strategies. They can be as simple as initiating an outreach campaign into the client community, holding Know Your Rights workshops or attorney office hours in community centers, creating community events, hiring social workers or civil legal aid lawyers to diversify staff skills, or even creating a client-friendly reception area.

LJC has provided resources to fund two pilot Defender Services Programs, in the Office of the Public Defender in Caddo Parish (1st JDC, 2008) and the 25th JDC Public Defender’s Office (Plaquemines Parish, 2009-2021). Both of these projects provided funds for the public defender office to have access to a social worker, working collaboratively for the exclusive purpose of improving the quality of the client’s defense.

The Plaquemines Defender Services Program August 2021 Program Summary is available HERE


LJC has also provided training and support for the Defender Services Program in Orleans Parish, facilitating access to community defenders at the Bronx Defenders, Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, and Public Defender Services of Washington, DC, and creating numerous trainings at state and national conferences.

An overview of the Orleans Defender Services Program is available HERE


In addition, staff member Heather H. Hall serves on the National Advisory Committee of the Community Oriented Defender Network, hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law in New York, NY. In that capacity, she helped develop the Principles of Community Oriented Defense and represents LJC while communicating with more than 40 other member-agencies.

A recent report providing more in-depth explanations of the Principles of Community Defense is available HERE


If you would like more information about LJC’s work supporting the community oriented defender model in Louisiana, please contact us at