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Equal Justice
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A Newsletter for the Disability and Criminal Justice Communities
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Dear Colleagues and Friends: The Criminal Justice Advocacy Program of The Arc of New Jersey has created this newsletter to bring information to you when we are not able to conference and train in person, full of links, articles and information to help you work with people with I/DD. Our hope is that this newsletter can keep you apprised of many of the issues that we have worked on together and will continue to address as we go forward.
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Highlighted in this Issue:
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- Legal Services of New Jersey Launches a New Project to Provide Civil Legal Assistance to Victims of Human Trafficking by: Dawn M. Solari, Senior Staff Attorney, LSNJ - PROTECT Project
- Equal Justice Talks Webinar Series
- Full archive of 2019-2020 Webinars
- Latest Webinar: Police Use of Deadly Force as it Relates to People with Behavioral Health Issues and Other Vulnerable Populations (6/18/20)
- The New Jersey Self-Advocacy Project Celebrates the 30th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act
- Webinars and resources about The ADA, its history, and how it impacts the lives of all Americans.
- Equal Justice Talks - Podcast Series
- Listen to our most recent episode: "Using Risk Assessment Tools for People with I/DD."
- End Abuse of People With Disabilities
- Special project of the Vera Institute of Justice
- Working with the ASD Expert: An Attorney’s Perspective
- Excerpt by Melanie Gavisk, from Editor Elizabeth Kelley's new book.
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Legal Services of New Jersey Launches a New Project to Provide Civil Legal Assistance to Victims of Human Trafficking
by: Dawn M. Solari, Senior Staff Attorney, LSNJ - PROTECT Project
Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons or modern-day slavery, is the illegal trade or use of a person against their will, for the purpose of forced labor or sexual exploitation. Legal Services of New Jersey (LSNJ) recently launched a major new state initiative, PROTECT, to provide holistic and comprehensive civil legal assistance to low income victims of human trafficking. LSNJ is the coordinating body for the statewide legal services system which has presence in all 21 counties and provides free civil legal assistance to indigent persons. The project serves both U.S. citizens and non-citizens, regardless of immigration status, as well as minor victims of human trafficking who have been victimized by both sex and labor traffickers.
View the
Guide for Making Legal Referrals to LSNJ
PROTECT
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Criminal Justice Advocacy Program
Equal Justice Talks - Webinar Series
Equal Justice Talks concludes its 2019-2020 series with a webinar on police use of deadly force.
We would like to thank all of our guest speakers and attendees for another successful series of Equal Justice Talks webinars. Our final webinar of this series was held on Thursday, June 18, 2020. It was entitled "Police Use of Deadly Force as it Relates to People with Behavioral Health Issues",
with guest speaker Professor Heather Cucolo, co-owner and partner, Mental Disability Law and Policy Associates. If you missed this webinar, you can watch the full recording by
clicking here.
Our next Equal Justice Talks webinar series
will begin in September 2020.
We hope to see everyone again this Fall!
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The New Jersey Self-Advocacy Project Celebrates 30 Years of the ADA
July 26th will mark the 30th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. The New Jersey Self-Advocacy Project(NJSAP) hosted a webinar entitled "ADA From A-Z: An Overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act" presented by the program's Director, Ashley Ritchey, MSW, LSW.
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On July 14th, NJSAP will host a webinar presented by Kelly Mulvaney called "Let's Make This Work: Employment and Accommodations Under the ADA." Register for this webinar and view their archived webinars by
clicking here
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You can show your support for the ADA and participate in NJSAP's social media campaigns by clicking the icons below. Be sure to also check out their
ADA Factsheet
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Criminal Justice Advocacy Program
Equal Justice Talks - Podcasts
The Criminal Justice Advocacy Program of The Arc of New Jersey is pleased to bring you a new series of podcasts called The Equal Justice Talks Podcast. Funded by the generous assistance of the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, this new series features conversations with experts and professionals about a variety of topics; some related to the COVID-19 crisis and some about issues we need to continue discussing despite the current pandemic. We will be posting podcasts about social skills programming, healthy sexuality and many other interesting and pertinent topics. Listen to our most recent episodes below.
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End Abuse of People with Disabilities
The Center on Victimization and Safety at the Vera Institute of Justice manages a program called End Abuse of People with Disabilities. This program was created to connect organizations, practitioners, government agencies, and individuals in order to prevent violence against people with disabilities. Their webinar series features topics such as: assault survivors with service animals, advocacy strategies for healthcare, and addressing intersecting identities. All of their webinars offer closed captioning and American Sign Language interpretation. To view all of their archived webinars,
click here
.
Their next webinar, entitled Closing the Gap Between Values and Reality: Disability Inclusion in Culturally Specific Programs, will take place on July 28th at 2:00pm ET. You can register for this webinar
HERE
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Working with the ASD Expert: An Attorney's Perspective, by Melanie Gavisk
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The following excerpt is from Editor Elizabeth Kelley's new book, Representing People With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers. The book is a compilation of expert opinions examining the experience of people with ASD in the criminal justice system.
"An experts opinion is only as good - and persuasive- as the information he/she used to form it. Some of that information is out of the attorney’s control; it depends on the expert’s education, experience, and research. Nevertheless, some of that information comes from the attorney through record gathering and other efforts.
The attorney (or investigator) should gather pertinent records, such as school records, medical and psychiatric records, and records from any residential treatment placements. The attorney will likely want to consult with the ASD expert to identify other relevant materials and determine whether the expert should interview family or friends as part of the evaluation. Particularly if the client has never been diagnosed with ASD before, obtaining supporting records and information that predate the offense will bolster the reliability of the expert’s conclusion. In most cases, the attorney will want to provide the ASD expert with all available evidence about the crime, including police reports and witness interviews.
After the expert has reviews relevant discovery and records, he/she will almost certainly need to interview the client, and perhaps friends and family as well. ... The client and other interviewees should clearly understand the purpose of the evaluation and limits of confidentiality. Although the expert will certainly explain this at the time of the interviews, preparing the client beforehand avoids unnecessary confusion. Explaining the importance of the evaluation - and the importance of providing accurate, complete, and detailed information- can ensure that interviewees are candid during their interviews. In addition, preparing the client upfront for the possibility that the report will not be helpful, and clearly explaining that the expert is independent, can minimize anger and disappointment later.
If the expert has not conducted a comprehensive review of relevant materials, he/she may be subject to harmful cross-examination. The expert’s failure to review such materials can also be grounds for reversal."
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Legal Services of New Jersey has created a COVID-19 resource page. For ongoing updates about changes in legal and government agency services, please visit the LSNJLAW Coronavirus page by
CLICKING HERE
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This program is made possible through funding by
the New Jersey State Bar Foundation
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