SOCIAL JUSTICE BLOG

Read and share the extraordinary stories from the frontlines of social change

Being convicted of a crime has thousands of consequences besides incarceration – and some last a lifetime
Criminal Justice Reform, Prior Conviction, Civil Rights Teddy Basham-Witherington Criminal Justice Reform, Prior Conviction, Civil Rights Teddy Basham-Witherington

Being convicted of a crime has thousands of consequences besides incarceration – and some last a lifetime

One thing I’ve learned while researching criminal justice reform and teaching college classes in prisons is that the reason the transition to life outside the corrections system is so hard is that there are more than 44,000 indirect consequences of a criminal conviction. These restrictions, which the Council of State Governments tracks in great detail, can include everything like making it impossible to get a license to work as a barber, manicurist, plumber, driver, interior designer or midwife, to restricting where the formerly incarcerated can live, study and volunteer.

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Civil Rights Class Action Challenges Broken Criminal Justice System in Louisiana
OverDetention, Civil Rights, Class Actions Teddy Basham-Witherington OverDetention, Civil Rights, Class Actions Teddy Basham-Witherington

Civil Rights Class Action Challenges Broken Criminal Justice System in Louisiana

Under Louisiana law, confining any person without legal authority to do so is false imprisonment. And the United States Supreme Court has said that, while some extra time to process paperwork may be necessary, it is unreasonable to imprison a person any longer than 48 hours after they are entitled to release. Louisiana’s imprisonment of people for months after they are entitled to release flagrantly violates the laws of Louisiana and the United States.

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Impact Fund Joins Fight Against Transgender Discrimination at Starbucks
Civil Rights, LGBTQI Discrimination Teddy Basham-Witherington Civil Rights, LGBTQI Discrimination Teddy Basham-Witherington

Impact Fund Joins Fight Against Transgender Discrimination at Starbucks

Most of Maddie’s coworkers were supportive of her transition and easily adjusted to her new name and pronouns. Over the following weeks, however, Dustin became cold and distant. He started avoiding her, cut her hours, and stopped talking to her about further career advancement. For months, Dustin insisted on calling Maddie by her former name or male nicknames, deliberating misgendering her. Outside of work, Dustin was a regular poster of anti-transgender memes and messages on Facebook and Twitter. When Maddie tried to discuss Guthrie’s hostile behavior with him, he ignored her. When she reached out to other Starbucks managers, she received no meaningful response. Experiencing significant anxiety and depression, Maddie had no choice but to leave Starbucks in June 2018.

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Civil Rights, Class Actions, H.R. 985 Teddy Basham-Witherington Civil Rights, Class Actions, H.R. 985 Teddy Basham-Witherington

Think Your Rights Are Safe? Think Again...

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a million dollars (or even one-tenth that) to devote to suing anybody. Right now there is no line item in my family’s budget for “lawsuits.” So basically, in a no-class-action future scenario, if I get screwed over by a company or the government, there will be absolutely nothing I can do about it. This would be a huge win for anyone itching to start their own Ponzi scheme, but a terrifying disaster for the rest of us.

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Fair Housing, Civil Rights Teddy Basham-Witherington Fair Housing, Civil Rights Teddy Basham-Witherington

Latino Families Fight For Fair Housing & Civil Rights in Richmond, VA

The final question we had for Ms. Molina was the kicker, as we prepared her to testify in an upcoming summary judgment hearing in federal court. We were asking about the effects of the city of Richmond’s aggressive maintenance code enforcement campaign against the residents of the mobile home park where she lives. City inspectors had threatened her, like most of her neighbors, with imminent displacement and the condemnation of her home (a later review of the inspectors’ notes showed that there was nothing to justify condemning the home, despite the city’s threats).  “How often do you think about it,” we asked the retiree from El Salvador. Ms. Molina’s eyes welled up with tears and, after a pause, her voice cracked, “All the time.” She paused as she wept. “All the time.”

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