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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowRural communities’ access to justice, bail reform and ensuring voting rights for individuals with criminal convictions will be chief among several criminal justice topics set for discussion during next month’s 2020 American Bar Association Midyear Meeting.
Nearly 600 members of the policymaking ABA House of Delegates will meet Feb. 17 in Austin, Texas, to dig into a variety of proposals up for debate and vote. Other topics to be addressed include interdisciplinary legal representation, reducing recidivism through holistic representation, and dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline for children of color, according to the ABA.
A presentation titled “Legal Deserts — How do Bars Fill the Gap?,” will discuss the problem of access to justice in rural areas, focusing on how technological barriers, new lawyers’ outstanding student loans, smaller populations and other circumstances lead to vast areas in many states that have no legal representation. Proposal 115 encourages more United States jurisdictions to consider regulatory innovations that foster new ways of delivering competent and cost-effective legal services, while retaining necessary and appropriate client and public protections.
Additionally, residency requirements and moral character tests will be examined during a voting rights discussion, considering how certain marginalized communities are prevented from voting, including homeless populations, students and those with criminal convictions. Another presentation titled “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Validity of Risk Assessment Tools in Setting Bail and Drafting Sentences” will explore the topic of risk-assessment tools used in bail reform efforts.
A full list of resolutions to be discussed on at the midyear meeting can be found here.
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