Members and Partners
The diversity of coalition members and principle partners has allowed LJC to amplify the call for reform and synthesize the unique strengths of individual organizations to improve the quality of public defense across the state.
Coalition Members:
American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana
P.O. Box 56157
New Orleans, LA 70156
www.laaclu.org
The ACLU of Louisiana is a non-profit, non-partisan organization fighting for individual rights and freedoms as guaranteed by the US and Louisiana Constitutions. Critical among those are rights to equal protection and due process, as well as the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The ACLU of Louisiana has been working to protect these rights in the courts, legislature and community since 1956.
The Bill of Rights covers all Americans, including suspects, defendants, offenders and prisoners. Many of the protections also apply to those living on American soil as immigrants, documented and undocumented. All too often, the rights of those involved in the criminal justice system are compromised or ignored. Disempowered low-income communities of color are especially vulnerable to such abuses because they are targeted by the war on drugs, racial profiling and other discriminatory policies and practices. The ACLU is working to reform the criminal justice system and make the promise of fair treatment a reality for all people.
Louisiana Appleseed
c/o Adams and Reese, LLP
4500 One Shell Square
New Orleans, LA 70139
www.appleseednetwork.org
Louisiana Appleseed uncovers and corrects injustices and barriers to opportunity through legal, legislative and market-based structural reform. Working with our huge pro bono network, we identify, research and analyze social injustices, make specific recommendations, and advocate for effective solutions to deep-seated structural problems. Together, Appleseed and Appleseed Centers form a network for positive change, building a society that provides each individual access to justice and a genuine opportunity to lead a full and productive life.
Guided by our mission, Louisiana Appleseed is committed to equal access to justice. Our projects ensure that state and local policies and procedures are just and that public defenders and other stakeholders in the criminal justice system are equipped with the tools necessary to ethically and effectively represent criminal defendants.
Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
P.O. Box 82351
Baton Rouge, LA 70884
www.lacdl.org
The vision of LACDL is to become the premier state association for advancing the professional interests Of criminal defense practitioners and their clients. The purposes of LACDL are to protect and insure by rule of law those individual rights guaranteed by the Louisiana and Federal Constitutions in criminal cases; to resist any efforts which are being made to curtail these rights; to encourage cooperation between lawyers engaged in the furtherance of these objectives through educational programs and other assistance; and through this cooperation, education and assistance to promote justice and the common good; to assist the courts, legislature, and law enforcement agencies in accomplishing their legitimate functions consistent with the rule of law and the protection of individual rights guaranteed by the Louisiana and United States Constitutions.
We are committed to the goal of restoring Blackstone's Ratio 10:1- shifting the philosophical and practical balance of the criminal justice system in this state to reflect Blackstone's axiomatic observation that it is "Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer." In practical terms LACDL works through its legislative and other committee programs to raise the standards of defense practice and support and build a strong public defense system.
Louisiana Bar Foundation
601 St. Charles Avenue, 3rd Floor
New Orleans, LA 70130
www.raisingthebar.org
The Louisiana Bar Foundation (LBF) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) entity organized under the state of Louisiana. We exist to preserve, honor and improve our system of justice by funding, developing and otherwise promoting efforts which enhance the legal profession, increase public understanding of the legal system and advance the reality of equal justice under the law. The LBF supports programs that provide free legal services for the poor in all 64 parishes of the state of Louisiana.
Our objectives are: Assure every person in Louisiana reasonable access to the justice system regardless of mental or physical condition, economic status, or type of legal problem; Identify, acquire, preserve, enhance and exhibit documents, items, photographs, and other types of media items of significant historical interest to the Louisiana legal community and to the general public; Promote public awareness and understanding of the legal system and its goals, as well as the rights and obligations of all parties involved; Raise the ethical and professional standards of the lawyers who operate the legal system; Establish and administer endowment funds, Interest on Lawyers' Trust Account funds, and other funds which can provide significant impact in fulfilling the goals of the Louisiana Bar Foundation; Support and enhance legal education in Louisiana; Improve the efficiency of the justice system while protecting the right to a full and fair procedure.
Louisiana CURE
P.O. Box 181
Baton Rouge, LA 70821
www.curelouisiana.org
Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) is an international organization that seeks to reduce crime through the reform of the criminal justice system, especially prison reform. CURE began in San Antonio, Texas in 1972 when citizens (families of prisoners and concerned individuals) went to the legislature in Austin to work against the death penalty. Louisiana CURE began as an inmate chapter at Angola State Penitentiary. In 1987 the Louisiana State Chapter of CURE was formally chartered. Today there are chapters in New Orleans and Houma.
CURE supports: Change in the attitude of the public towards prisoners; Reform of Louisiana sentencing laws; Parole eligibility for lifers; Reducing the high cost of prison phone calls for families and love ones; Use of alternative sentencing options in the community whenever possible; Enhancement of prisoner-family relationships; Encouraging prisoners to be positive, contributing members of the community in which they are located; Better access in prison to treatment for medical and psychological problems; Better access to drug and alcohol treatment in and out of the prison system; Restorative Justice Programs to address the needs of victims, offenders and community so that they may be healed; and the right to vote nationally for ex-prisoners and probationers.
Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children
188 Williamsburg St.
Lake Charles, LA 70605
www.fflic.org
Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children have joined together to fight for a better life for our children and our communities. We are mothers, grandmothers, families who struggle with disability or mental health. We are allies of families who fight the systemic abuse, that tears down our communities and families. We support and offer advice to each other, help each other to develop our leadership skills. We work to find people who believe what we believe so we can fight for change and build strong communities
Our goals are to: Close Louisiana’s youth prisons, push the state to redirect funding from prisons to funding alternatives to incarceration in our communities that support and educate our children & families and lower the overall number of youth caught up in the system. We advocate for children and parents in hearings and meetings in the court and school systems. We provide support in a nurturing a family centered environment. We organize our members to confront policy makers and those in power to close prisons and stop the school to prison pipeline to build a better Louisiana. We connect our members to national social justice movement to build a better world. We provide leadership and advocacy trainings that develop our members to be able to advocate for themselves and others.
Innocence Project New Orleans
636 Baronne Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
www.ip-no.org
Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO) represents indigent, innocent prisoners serving life sentences across Louisiana and assists them with their transition into life outside prison after their exoneration. IPNO has secured the release of ten innocent prisoners in Louisiana. IPNO investigates cases and represents convicted prisoners in post conviction, where they have no right to an attorney even if innocent. Each IPNO exoneration takes thousands of hours of work. The process of screening, investigating and litigating cases has taught IPNO that although most wrongful convictions are caused by state misconduct (withholding of exculpatory evidence, over-zealous prosecutors, etc), many could have been prevented if the prisoner had been represented at trial by an adequately resourced and trained public defender with a reasonable workload. IPNO’s cases show that men have spent decades wrongly in Louisiana’s prisons, costing the state money and failing the victims of crime, because Louisiana has been unwilling to invest in public defense services. IPNO’s commitment to improving accountability across the criminal justice system includes prioritizing the provision of high quality trial and appellate level indigent defense for all of our indigent citizens charged with crimes.
Louisiana Interchurch Conference
527 North Blvd, 4th Floor
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
www.lainterchurch.org
Recognizing that Jesus calls all people to be one, the Louisiana Interchurch Conference, representing diverse communions, strives to proclaim in word and deed to the people, churches and institutions of Louisiana that faith which we hold in common, in the hope that by our common witness we will grow toward greater unity in Christ Jesus.
Judicatory leaders, clergy, and lay members schedule, plan and host periodic assemblies and other means of cooperative prayer for both ecumenical and interfaith services. The Louisiana Interchurch Conference advocates for Social Justice and Public Policy issues that demand LIC’s attention and fall within its scope and purpose, and provides practical means for application in both rural and urban areas.
Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana
1600 Oretha Castle Haley
New Orleans, LA 70113
www.jjpl.org
Founded in 1997, the mission of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana is to transform the juvenile justice system into one that builds on the strengths of young people, families and communities in order to instill hope and to ensure children are given the greatest opportunities to grow and thrive. Through advocacy, media support, organizing and policy work, JJPL remains committed to improving the quality of juvenile justice statewide, including implementation of evidence-based best practices and programs. JJPL continues its efforts to ensure that each child who comes in contact with the justice system is provided effective, quality representation in a system that focuses on rehabilitation, education and alternatives to incarceration.
Mental Health Alliance in Louisiana
263 Third Street, Suite 103
Baton Rouge, LA 70801
www.mhal.org
Mental Health America of Louisiana is the state affiliate of the country's oldest and largest nonprofit addressing all aspects of mental health and mental illness. Mental Health America works to improve the mental health of all Americans, especially the 54 million individuals with mental disorders, through advocacy, education, research and service. Mental Health America and its chapters are dedicated to providing Louisiana with community awareness campaigns, consumer protection services, and the strong advocacy required for meaningful mental health reform. Mental Health America envisions a just, humane and healthy society in which all people are accorded respect, dignity, and the opportunity to achieve their full potential free from stigma and prejudice. As part of our reform efforts, we are passionate about the proper treatment and recovery of mental health consumers. Therefore, adequate public defense and representation is essential in conquering the war against mental health discrimination.
National Legal Aid and Defender Association
1140 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036
www.nlada.org
The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), founded in 1911, is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership organization devoting all of its resources to advocating equal access to justice for all Americans. NLADA champions effective legal assistance for people who cannot afford counsel, serves as a collective voice for both civil legal services and public defense services throughout the nation and provides a wide range of services and benefits to its individual and organizational members. From 2002 through 2007, NLADA played an active role in Louisiana as stakeholders sought to reform this state’s right to counsel delivery method. The organization worked with the Louisiana State Bar to establish a Task Force on Indigent Defense. NLADA then released In Defense of Public Access to Justice (March 2004), a comprehensive report on Louisiana’s systemic deficiencies that became the basis for the Task Force meetings. The work with the Task Force led to NLADA being retained by the Louisiana State Bar to document issues in post-Katrina New Orleans and to create a road map for a comprehensive legislative fix. The report, released in September 2006, was the starting point for a legislative advisory group put together by the Chair of the House Criminal Justice Committee. As new drafts of the bill were written in 2007, NLADA continued to provide technical assistance to the legislative staff, and on through the bill’s final passage.
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
1660 L St., NW, 12th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
www.nacdl.org
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) is the preeminent organization in the United States advancing the mission of the nation's criminal defense lawyers to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or other misconduct. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's more than 12,800 direct members -- and 94 state, local, and international affiliate organizations with another 35,000 members -- include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, active U.S. military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness within America's criminal justice system.
NACDL has been active in Louisiana’s public defense reform movement, coordinating litigation in Calcasieu Parish and participating in the assessment of Avoyelles Parish.
Louisiana Public Defenders Association
P.O. Box 82389
Lafayette, LA 70598
www.lapda.org
Louisiana Public Defenders began to meet for annual CLE in 1989 after finding that there was no specific Criminal Law training in Louisiana. The annual meetings were the foundation for the Louisiana Public Defenders Association, which formed circa 1994 as efforts to reform the system began, often without the Public Defenders "at the table". In 2006, after the Public Defenders had proven an important element in achieving legislative change, the first reform bill was passed in a compromise with the Louisiana Public Defenders Association, and in the 2007 Session, LaPDA was a major contributor to the coalition that swept Act 307 into law with only a handful of opposing votes.
The Association continues to focus CLE on the Public Defender function, and in addition has undertaken a number of studies and "Action Committees" to suggest solutions to pressing problems. In 2005, the Association promulgated performance standards and promoted them, resulting in adoption by the State Board, and those same standards are included in Act 307 as a reference point for regulation of the profession. The Association recently committed to spearheading information gathering on 'conflicts representation' from defenders across the state to assist the 307 Board with funding allocation. It was also instrumental in the initial pilot project, in cooperation with the Ouachita Parish Public Defender and the Louisiana Appellate Project, to prove the viability of a web-based data collection system. That system is now the core of a solid foundation for data on caseloads, workload and case counting.
Urban League of Greater New Orleans
2322 Canal St.
New Orleans, LA 70119
www.urbanleagueneworleans.org
In 1938, at the urging of negro businessmen and local religious leaders, the Council of Social Agencies, aided by Jesse O. Thomas, Southern Field Secretary for the National Urban League, founded the Urban League of Greater New Orleans. The conditions facing Negro New Orleanians mirrored those of other urban dwellers which propelled the newly formed group to advocate for better race relations which would be the foundation for improving the plight of Negroes economically and socially. The urban League would serve as a "clearing house" for the industrial, social, and general welfare problems of the Negro people. In 1910, the National Urban League was founded to champion basic human rights for African Americans in this country. During this era, rights such as voting, equal education, housing and fair employment were institutionally denied to people of color in our society.
Today, there are 105 Urban League affiliates throughout the country. Through advocacy, community organization and mobilization and program services in areas of education, economic development, employment and training, youth services and child and family support, the League's mission of helping individuals to attain economic self-sufficiency remains virtually unchanged.
Principle Partners
- A Fighting Chance: http:// www.a-fighting-chance.org
- Alliance for Justice: http:// www.afj.org
- Arc of Louisiana: http:// www.arcbatonrouge.org
- Beane Consulting: http:// www.beaneconsulting.org
- Brennan Center for Justice, New York University School of Law: http:// www.brennancenter.org
- Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC): http:// www.cliniclegal.org
- Center for Court Innovation: http:// www.courtinnovation.org
- Families Helping Families: http:// www.fhfla.org
- Fair Housing Action Center of Greater New Orleans: http:// www.gnofairhousing.org
- Gillis Long Poverty Law Center: http://law.loyno.edu/gillislong
- I-10 Witness Project: http:// www.i10witness.org
- Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy: http://dpa.ky.gov
- Louisiana State University School of Social Work: http:// www.socialwork.lsu.edu/
- Mondo Bizarro http:// www.mondobizarro.org
- National Juvenile Defender Center: http:// www.njdc.info
- Offender Rehabilitation Division, Public Defender Services for the District of Columbia: http:// www.pdsdc.org/PDS/OffenderRehabilitationDivision.aspx
- Office of Mental Health: http:// www.dhh.louisiana.gov
- Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana: http:// www.la-par.org
- T.E.A.M.S. (Training, Education and Mediation for Students): http:// www.teams-la.com
- Texas Appleseed: http:// www.texasappleseed.net
- Resurrection After Exoneration (R.A.E.): http:// www.r-a-e.org
- Southern Disability Law Center: http:// www.sdlcenter.org
- Southern Poverty Law Center: http:// www.splcenter.org
- Southern Public Defender Training Center: http:// www.southerndefender.org
- Tulane University Criminal Law Clinic: http:// www.law.tulane.edu
- Turning Point Partners: http:// www.turningpointpartners.com
- Unity for the Homeless: http:// www.unitygno.org
- University of Maryland School of Law, Reentry of Ex-Offenders Clinic: http:// www.law.umaryland.edu
- Volunteers for Youth Justice: http:// www.vyjla.org
- Vera Institute for Justice: http:// www.vera.org
- Virginia Fair Trials Project: http:// www.vafairtrialproject.org
- Youth Empowerment Project: http:// www.youthempowermentproject.org