Credit: @ZakitheBarber

We begin this month’s newsletter with this powerful street mural in Brooklyn. Its message is clear without having to read it: A CONVICTION SHOULDN’T BE A LIFE SENTENCE. For more about this, the mission, and the person behind it, read on.

At last count, 193 people in 19 counties have responded to our Call to Action. Simply by clicking and entering their name and home address, they have let 104 Pennsylvania senators and representatives know how totally underwater the Board of Pardons staff is, and why the Board urgently needs a few more clerks (at just $40,000 per year) to handle the surging tide of pardon applications from around the state.

If YOU haven’t done this yet, STOP READING AND CLICK HERE!!!

We’ve written before about the impact that criminal records have not just on individuals but on their families and their communities. Colleen Sheen (Santa Clara University Law School) recently published a major paper on it called Paper Prisons, where she examines, nationally and at length, the numerous variety of harms they inflict. Now, she and Bob Apel (Rutgers School of Criminal Justice) have posted a new paper, soon to be published in the Arizona Law Review, titled Estimating the Earnings Loss of a Criminal Record & Suspended Driver’s License.

Their bottom lines? Relying on a number of studies, they estimate the annual “earnings penalty” resulting from a conviction is about a $4,600 for a misdemeanor and $5,100 for a felony. What’s even worse: they give a very preliminary estimate that the annual cost of a lost driver's license is $12,700! Meaning: even if you get a great job, you might not be able to get to it. This is a stark reminder that we simply must reform how PennDOT (mis)behaves. Because it is not a “criminal justice agency,” it says it is not bound by expungements and pardons. Governor, could you find time to fix this mess? Any lawyer out there willing to help us take on PennDOT??

Since 1986, Equal Justice Works has been providing fellowships so that graduating law students can follow their hearts and start their careers in public service, with the goal of growing the public interest legal community and bringing lasting change to underserved communities across our country. PLSE received two EJW Fellows back near our start, which was critical to making PLSE viable as an organization. Now, we are INCREDIBLY honored to report that EJW is back in our corner!

This month, EJW announced that Moriah Mendicino has been awarded an EJW Fellowship to work at PLSE! Moriah was an intern with us last summer before her third year at Rutgers Law School, and she will return to us in September as a staff attorney. This is all thanks to Comcast and Duane Morris who are sponsoring the Fellowship that will cover her salary and benefits for two full years!!

As we wrote when we received the good news, “Moriah is simply amazing, and she will be joining us at PRECISELY the time when we are going to be significantly ratcheting up our operations a second time, in a hard push out through low-income neighborhoods in partnerships with communities of faith and public health organizations.”

Thank you, EJW! Thank you, Duane Morris! Thank you, Comcast! And Moriah, we simply cannot wait to have you back with us!

Frances Wolf has effectively used her position as First Lady to highlight the harsh realities confronting women returning home from prison – and the opportunities we as a society have to help them transition to stable and productive lives. This month, she paid a visit to the group of civic leaders who are creating the Pardon Project of York County (where the Wolfs live). (It will launch in July – watch this space!!)

On the zoom with us for twice as long as her schedule allowed, she was very appreciative and encouraging:

No, thank you, Mrs. Wolf, for making second chances your first priority!

Last month ended with one of our most successful neighborhood clinics in years! Sponsored by State Representative Darisha Parker and hosted by Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church at its building on West Coulter Street, the clinic was advertised to run 12-2 pm … but we didn’t close down until after 3. From the moment we saw our first client, the line went out the door, down the street, and around the corner. All told, we helped well over 100 people that day and others signed up for help afterwards via our online intake.

We knew we had struck gold when we were able to persuade Renee Chenault Fattah to become our Executive Director: anyone with a TV knows her and trusts her, as an investigative journalist and as a news anchor. Since then, she’s taken our programs to new heights, connected us with new community partners, and helped us reach new areas of the city. It was no surprise to us then to hear she’d received two honors, both in the same week this month.

On Thursday, May 19, she was in Baltimore, where she delivered the keynote address to 700 Master’s candidates from 40 different advanced degree programs who were graduating from Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences – the first in-person ceremony in three years. Said the Dean: “I am honored that Renee Chenault Fattah will be delivering the address to these inspiring graduates. Through her leadership and persistent efforts to inform and improve our world, Renee exemplifies the mission of the Krieger School.” As you might expect, Renee took the opportunity to talk about how important it is for those with privilege to use it (and their smarts) to help others and make our society better, and more just.

Then, the next day, she was back in Philadelphia receiving the Legacy Award from the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. Here’s what they said about her: 

“Inspiring and persistent,” "rare and remarkable," "the gold standard." Once investigating the stories that matter and reporting them, now helping others tell their stories and making them the news. It’s clear that Renee knows the way, and is leading it.