Pennsylvania has the second highest rate of community supervision in the country. Probation violations that lead to probation detainers send thousands of Pennsylvanians to state prison each year even though they have not had a trial or been convicted of a crime.

The case and Pennsylvania's probation detainer system were described in a July 11 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, " Philly public defender suit seeks to blow up 'unlawful' probation detainers." 

For far too many job applicants with criminal records, one brush with the law can cause employers to reject them out of hand for decades. But in Pennsylvania, this type of discrimination is illegal. Our Executive Director Jennifer Clarke highlights the laws that protect job-seekers with criminal histories, and dispels many of the negative stereotypes that hold them back in the workplace, in a July 19 column in The Legal Intelligencer, "Employers: Applicants With Criminal Histories Deserve a Fair Chance." 

In the article, she discusses our efforts to create case law under an important but under-enforced Pennsylvania law, the Criminal History Record Information Act (CHRIA). This act allows employers to consider criminal convictions only "to the extent to which they relate to an applicant's suitability for employment in the position for which (s)he has applied." 

In our most recent case under CHRIA, we are representing Kara Gannon, a 56-year-old woman with strong work history in social services. Ms. Gannon was denied two social work positions with Montgomery County solely, we allege, due to two unrelated misdemeanor convictions from eight and ten years ago, in violation of CHRIA. In both instances, Ms. Gannon was in the final stages of the hiring process and was only turned away after she voluntarily submitted her record. "Holding the county responsible for wrongfully denying an applicant employment based on her criminal record, and requiring the county to adopt new policies to ensure compliance with CHRIA, will impact workers not just in that county but will surely cause other municipalities to scrutinize their own hiring policies," Jennifer wrote. Read the column here.

 

In the 1970s Penelope Brace challenged the Philadelphia Police Department's refusal to hire women as police officers. We represented her in court.

The prevailing attitude of Police Department leadership was no secret. In a report filed in the case, Women as Police Officers, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Joseph O'Neil wrote: "Female officers are not as effective as male officers ... Women are not physically capable of handling violent incidents on patrol... women are less likely to take charge at an incident."

At trial in 1976, a federal judge ordered the Department to hire one-hundred new female officers, and to conduct a study on their performance. Later, reviewing the results of this study, the judge determined that there was no basis in fact for the Philadelphia Police Department's arguments. Today, 27% of Philadelphia police officers are women, nearly twice the national average.

We'd like to thank our summer 2019 interns for their fantastic work throughout the summer! Help us show our appreciation by liking their post on Facebook! Clockwise from back row left: Andrew Cutillo, University of Michigan Law School; Emma Pajer, Temple University Beasley School of Law; T.J. Grayson, Yale Law School; Max Reinhardt, Yale Law School; Deepti Sailappan, University of Chicago; Caroline Ramsey, University of Virginia School of Law; Taylor Hinch, Villanova University. Not pictured: Eden Richman