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Justice System Reform

Duke Energy Provides $25,000 Grant For SCSJ’s 2022 Justice System Reform Work

DURHAM, N.C. (December 21, 2021) — Duke Energy has awarded Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) with a $25,000 grant to expand the educational and advocacy work of the North Carolina-based organization’s Justice System Reform (JSR) team. Through community lawyering, communications, and organizing, the JSR Team promotes social and economic justice by ensuring police accountability,…

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Collateral Damage of the War on Drugs

Over a decade ago Benjamin was convicted of misdemeanor possession of marijuana.  Watch how his life was changed forever:

Collateral Consequences: Benjamin’s Story
Produced by…

Time to End the War on Drugs

Post by SCSJ Staff Attorney Daryl Atkinson Time to End the War on Drugs In a speech to the American Bar Association on August 12,…

Removing Barriers to Employment

Jasmyn Prioleau was a 20-something when she had a run-in with the law, and said she didn’t think about the lifelong consequences – although the…

Why the Voting Rights Act Makes Sense

On February 1st the Southern Coalition of Social Justice filed an amicus brief in Shelby County v. Holder on behalf of numerous political science and…

SCSJ's Client Eva Foster Seeks Justice

Eva Foster, 87, a jazz legend and well-respected member of the community in Greensboro, is supported by the Beloved Community Center and other groups as…

222 Voters in May Primary Received Wrong Ballot in NC

Today Plaintiffs in the North Carolina statewide redistricting case filed a motion for summary judgment, asking the court to hold that North Carolina's House, Senate and Congressional redistricting plans are unconstitutional. As part of the research for that motion, plaintiffs' found that 2056 voters in the state had been assigned to the wrong district in a sampling of 6 of North Carolina's 100 Counties. 715 of those voters actually voted in the primary and 222 of them received the wrong ballot. Plaintiffs are asking for a hearing in mid-November. Any change in the maps won't take effect until the 2014 elections, but the wrongly assigned voters could be corrected in time for the November 2012 general election. Attached below are the Motion and a one-page summary of the filings.

daryl atkinson speaks on Capitol Hill at launch of new website on collateral consequences

On September 20th Daryl Atkinson presented testimony on the importance of knowing the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction before entering a guilty plea. He joined Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and others on Capitol Hill for the launch of a new website created by the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section and the National Institute of Justice. "Lifting the veil on these invisible punishments" will be easier for defense lawyers and for people facing criminal charges thanks to the new tool that will identify all the civil consequences of a criminal conviction. The site was modeled on North Carolina's novel one stop portal (C-CAT) http://ccat.sog.unc.edu/ that provides North Carolina citizens a way to assess the full ramifications of their criminal justice involvement. The Legal Times reports on the event here: http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2012/09/new-website-shows-collateral-consequences-of-criminal-convictions.html The ABA website is: http://www.abacollateralconsequences.org/CollateralConsequences/map.jsp