By Alonzo Harvey, Paper Prisons Expert Advisor As a formerly incarcerated advocate and member of the Paper Prisons team, I’ve seen exactly where the justice system fails the people trapped inside it. I’ve worked on Racial Justice Act (RJA) teams, and one truth is clear: incarcerated individuals cannot fight racial bias in their cases without […]
By Alonzo Harvey and Colleen V. Chien Examples of Letters received by the Paper Prisons Initiative The Judicial Council of California is proposing, as described in its invitation to comment W26-05, to change Form HC-001, the official Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus used in California courts. Form HC-001 is a form that can be
By Colleen V. Chien, Founder, Paper Prisons Initiative and Professor, Berkeley Law School One in three adults has a criminal record. As such, one of the most important and unresolved questions in criminal justice policy is whether people can move beyond their past records and re-integrate into society. The evidence suggests that they can —
New year, new partnership, with the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office, on “Digital Juneteenth” initiatives. While California’s “Clean Slate” laws automate record expungement, many individuals remain unaware they’ve been cleared. Drawing inspiration from the spirit of Juneteenth—where freedom required awareness to be realized—in 2024, Paper Prisons launched a “Digital Juneteenth” research initiative to address
By Colleen V. Chien, Founder, Paper Prisons Initiative and Professor, Berkeley Law School What do the Supreme Court’s landmark civil rights decisions have in common with the rescue of Healthcare.gov or the delivery of effective digital services during the COVID pandemic? Each transformed the lives of millions of Americans—and each was made possible, in part,
By Audrey Im, Berkeley CS ‘23 grad, Paper Prisons research associate, Shreya Shankar, Berkeley CS PhD candidate The California Racial Justice Act provides a mechanism for defendants (and the convicted) to challenge a charge, conviction, or sentence if it is sought or obtained in a racially disparate manner. Paper Prisons’ RJA data tool provides data
At least 10M Americans have lost their licenses for reasons unrelated to driving. What is the impact of reforming license suspension practices and restoring licenses to drivers? Using CPS data and a staggered diff-in-diff design, our new working paper suggests an unexpected payoff – measurable increases in state-wide employment when reforms are of high-quality and
By Alivia Dawson, 2nd year undergrad student, Berkeley The Paper Prisons Initiative recently presented our Racial Justice Act (RJA) tool, forthcoming “Digital Juneteenth” expungement notification campaign with the Santa Clara Public Defender, and how AI tools can be leveraged to increase access to justice, before hundreds of public defenders during a webinar on Technological Developments
By Adriana R., Age 17 My name is Adriana, and I am a 17-year-old African American child from Riverside County, California. I have never seen my father face to face… When I was still in my mother’s belly, my father was arrested for a case that would forever impact my life and upbringing. On December
By Ryan Flaco Rising, a PhD student at UC Irvine My name is Ryan Flaco Rising, and I am empowered by the Racial Justice Act to stand up against the injustices of a racist system that has manipulated our judicial system to uphold white supremacy. Being labeled as a documented gang member, I have experienced