Community Defense Resources
Community defense is both an ideology and a practice. Community defenders seek collaboration with neighboring community members, community groups and local social service providers, rather than simply waiting for clients to appear alongside them in court. The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law defines community defense:
First, community defenders recognize that an individuals initial contact with the criminal justice system offers a rare moment in which to address many of the individual’s most salient needs, including those that lie outside the immediate realm of the legal system. Yet, such advocacy is seldom strictly extralegal, for it is often through their established contacts with community groups and service providers that defenders are able to most significantly improve their client’s case outcomes – often through diversion, sentence mitigation, and the avoidance of civil sanctions – and reduce the burden of overwhelming caseloads and needlessly large court dockets.
Second, community defenders advocate on behalf of their clients as a community or collective constituency rather than as a mere collection of individual cases. Through various kinds of advocacy and systemic reform efforts, they attempt to improve the social standing of the communities from which many of their clients come, and to which many eventually return.
Since 2007, the Louisiana Justice Coalition has been an active a member of the Community Oriented Defender Network, a group of approximately 50 member agencies who support the Brennan Center for Justice's Community Defense Standards.
To access the 2021 Brennan Center for Justice Report on Community Defense Standards, click HERE
Related Reports
To access the Brennan Center for Justice Report on Community Defense in New Orleans, click HERE
To access the Vera Center for Justice recommendations for the New Orleans criminal justice system, click HERE
To access a report on America's Problem Solving Courts, click HERE
To access the OSI Report Moving Toward a More Integrative Approach to Justice Reform, click HERE
To access the report The Community Court Model on Defendant Perceptions of Fairness, click HERE
Materials from Public Defender Social Worker Divisions
To access the Plaquemines Defender Services Program 2021 Annual Report, click HERE
To access an 2009 overview of the Orleans Public Defenders Defender Services Program, click HERE
To access the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy 2007 Annual Social Worker Report, click HERE
To access material about the Offender Rehabilitation Division at Public Defender Services in Washington, D.C., click HERE
Note: The Louisiana Justice Coalition, working with the Louisiana Public Defender Board, is developing a 'Community Defender Toolkit' for Defender Services Programs in Louisiana (social worker divisions). These materials will be posted as soon as they are available.
Collateral Consequences Resources
To access the American Bar Association 2009 report on the consequences of a federal conviction, click HERE
To access a 2007 report on the consequences of a criminal conviction in Maryland, click HERE
Note: The Louisiana Justice Coalition resource, 'Now and Later: the Short and Long-Term Effects of a Louisiana Conviction" will be uploaded as soon as they are available.