Criminal justice research and advocacy

In a variety of Justice Lab projects, students researched and developed proposals to improve the criminal justice system, exploring such problems as prison overcrowding, racial disparities, and barriers to housing and employment faced by citizens returning from incarceration.

  • Pennsylvania courts continue to reverse wrongful convictions obtained through incorrect or outdated forensic techniques. It is inefficient and unjust to address these errors one by one when it is clear that they are based on flawed science.  Students worked with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project to research how other states have solved this problem, through forensic science commissions and other mechanisms, and develop strategies for Pennsylvania.
  • The practice of requiring cash bail from criminal defendants has been shown to discriminate against people in poverty and to contribute to mass incarceration. The federal court system eliminated cash bail years ago; now, a movement to eliminate it at the state and local levels is underway as well. Justice Lab students worked with Redeemed PA to develop a plan for eliminating cash bail in Pennsylvania.
  • Twenty to thirty percent of people held in Philadelphia jails are there on a “probation hold” — i.e., an allegation that they have violated the terms of their release on probation or parole. Students worked with the Defender Association of Philadelphia to determine how defense counsel can best protect the legal rights of defendants subject to probation holds.
  • A 2015 Justice Lab report, “The current status of Philadelphia prisons and the need for reform,” proposed ways of reducing the City’s extreme prison overcrowding problem

Temporary workers

Many low-wage workers now find their jobs through temporary staffing agencies (“temp agencies”). Through the use of temp agencies, employers are able to avoid accountability in the workplace. Unscrupulous employers can skirt laws that require payment for minimum wages and overtime, and access to workers’ compensation and unemployment benefits. Some temp agencies target particularly vulnerable communities, such as refugees and undocumented immigrants, who are desperate for work and unlikely to complain about illegal practices.

Students in the Social Justice Lawyering Clinic are working with PhilaPOSH, a nonprofit organization focused on the occupational health and safety of workers, on documenting abuses by temp agencies in Philadelphia.

Remedying unsafe and unhealthy housing

This project explores the link between substandard housing and health problems, and focuses on measures that should be taken to make Philadelphia’s rental housing units healthier and safer.

A recent report, Strategies to Address Unsafe and Unhealthy Housing in Philadelphia, urges that all landlords have up-to-date rental licenses; strengthening enforcement of the property maintenance code; taking a proactive approach to inspections, rather than waiting for formal complaints; and devoting more funds to the Department of Licensing & Inspections. The report was developed by students working with Nan Feyler, Visiting Professor of Law a Sheller Center Affiliated Faculty member.

Legal incubators

The Center is examining the “legal incubator” movement, which has spreading rapidly across the country — but has not yet found a foothold in Philadelphia. Incubators help young lawyers gain the practical skills they need in order to set up moderately-priced law practices in local communities. Thus, incubators serve a dual purpose:  they expand career options for law graduates, while also creating affordable services for people of low and moderate incomes (who, studies show, are increasingly unable to access legal help).

A Legal Incubator for Philadelphia? examines the incubator movement, and argues that the time has come to consider establishing an incubator here.

Affordable housing and racial justice

Justice Lab worked in Spring 2016 with the Housing Unit of Community Legal Services to develop an advocacy agenda to maintain tenant protections and affordable housing for Philadelphians in HUD Rental Assistance Demonstration properties. The team’s findings and recommendations are set forth in Philadelphia Rental Assistance Demonstration Program Advocacy Guide: Solutions for Ensuring Tenant Rights and Long Term Affordability in RAD Conversions (also available from the CLS web site).

Now, Justice Lab is helping CLS develop a long-term strategy to address racial justice in affordable housing in Philadelphia.  Students are collecting and analyzing data about public housing properties, Section 8 contracts, demographics, income levels, gentrification trends, and other factors to identify ways to preserve affordable housing. This innovative work is enabling the students and CLS to develop proactive strategies to preserve equitable, affordable housing in Philadelphia. A recent Justice Lab report, Danger of the Opt Out, documents the problems likely to arise as landlords opt out of Section 8, and recommends steps to be taken to address these risks (which will disproportionately impact African-American residents).

Reentry from incarceration

For Philadelphia citizens returning from incarceration, outstanding traffic fines and driver’s license suspensions can present a major barrier to employability and reintegration into society. This project focuses on finding solutions to these problems.

Our report, “Proposed solutions for Improving the Experience of Returning Citizens with the Philadelphia Traffic Division,” prepared by Justice Lab students in spring 2016 for our client, Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, discusses a number of proposals, including converting outstanding fines to time served or to community service; simplifying Traffic Division materials, and making sure that they include understandable information about the availability of payment plans for traffic fines; educating returning citizens on how to navigate the Traffic Division process; and more.

Juvenile justice

Justice Lab has worked with the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project to develop strategies and solutions to end the burdensome imposition of particular costs on parents of children in the juvenile justice system. A comprehensive report, Double Punishment: Philadelphia’s Practice of Charging Parents for their Child’s Incarceration Costs, resulted in a City Council hearing in March, 2017, at which the City announced that it will halt the practice. This advocacy campaign has received national attention; a compilation of reports and clippings is here.

Wage theft

With Community Legal Services, in collaboration with Raise the Wage PA, students investigated the wage theft enforcement system and examined other more effective state models. They issued a report, Shortchanged, on the epidemic of wage theft in Pennsylvania.

Students also worked with a coalition on a proposal for a new ordinance that creates a wage theft office in Philadelphia where workers can file complaints.  After the ordinance was enacted, students developed proposed guidelines on how it should be implemented. And on an ongoing basis, students handle individual wage-theft cases in state and federal court (here’s an example).

Rights of restaurant workers

Students helped Restaurant Opportunities Center-Philadelphia develop legal materials for its High Road Campaign, which supports employers committed to fair treatment of employees.