Hearsay

• Pages: 15-15

father answered the door and ref used to let me in.

I called the police. When t hey arrived, my father

argued, “He can’t take a ny of it. I bought it all.”

To which I calmly rebutted, “Tho se were gifts.”

My moment of self-advocacy was val idated

when the o cers t old my father, “If they were

gifts, t hen you have to take it up in civil court.

He’s free to get his stu .”

MOVING ON

I set out on a bureaucratic scavenger hunt to

gather the legal documents requi red to qualify

for employment, shelter, college, emergency

resources and fi nancial aid.

I entered a youth shelter and endured for a month

before opting to sleep on the subway. I kept myself

busy with school, work and drop -in centers. After

my high school graduation ceremony, a dark reality

became apparent: I was homeless. A s fear set in, my

pride capitulated, and I a dmitted my situation to

close friends who immediat ely o ered a place t o stay.

I tried enrolling in college but quick ly learned that

fi nancial aid was dependent on my father’s income.

I went to an organization where at torneys used a fed-

eral regulation to d raft a dependency override letter

that explained my const ructive abandonment. That

letter provided me with t he ability to apply for fi na n-

cial aid through college a nd law school. It was an

annual reminder of the impact of e  ective ad vocacy.

Eventually, my sister was exonerated, and t he

outcome of the experience chal lenged my bias toward

law enforcement, as opposed to cri minal justice over-

all. For my fi rst legal internship, I worked at the

Mayor’s O ce of Cr iminal Justice, combining legal

analysis wit h data to inform policy. I researched

the collateral consequence s of low-level mari-

juana arrest s and demonstrated that even the

act of an arre st, absent any adjudication, could have

a profound impact on a defendant’s immigration,

fi nancial aid, credit and a slew of other conse quences.

The broken windows model of policing operated

under an assumption that deferre d adjudications

were harmless. However, precedent demonstrated

otherwise for some of the 51,000 pe ople annually

arrested for ma rijuana possession in NYC. These

fi ndings resonated with my superv isors, and the

city altered its a rrest policy later that year.

Earlier, I experienced how the law’s intervention

can provide safet y and escape. Later, I learned the

justice system isn’t always jus t, but through legal

review, analysis and dat a we can steer it in the right

direct ion.

Today, I refl ect on how the justice s ystem shaped

me and my family and hope the progres s and

improvements I contribute throughout my career

will provide simi lar securities and justice to fa milies

who need help. Q

Shane Correia is associate director of strategic partner-

ships at the Center for Court Innovation, where he

helps promote new thinking about reducing crime and

incarceration and strengthening public trust in justice.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LAWYER.COM; SHUTTERSTOCK (4)

Opening Statements

JUNE 2018 ABA JOURNAL || 15

Represents the number of exonerations

in the U.S . last year, according to a new

report by the N ational Registr y of

Exonerations. A record-high 84 out

of the 139 involved m isconduct by pol ice,

prosecutors and other government

o cials. Advocate s say the wrongful ly

accused are increasingly able to seek

help from innocence organizations

and prosecutors’ o ces com mitted

to fi xing wrongful convictions. There

were 171 reported exonerations in

the U.S. i n 2016.

Source: law.umich.ed u

(March 15).

$10 MILLION

Is the amount U ber Technologies has agreed to

pay to settle a discrimination class action brought

by 420 female and minority software engineers.

Class members alleged hostile work environment and

claimed Uber us ed an unfair syste m to evaluate employee performance

that disadvantaged women and employees of color. In addition, Uber has

agreed to reform its compensation and promotion practices. The case

was fi led in the U.S. Distr ict Court for the Northern District of Ca lifornia.

Source: law.com (March 29).

Hearsay

Sitting at the Bar ...

A treasure trove of bar

passage data released by the

American Bar Association

o ers a window o n which

schools’ grads are getting

high marks on the state tests

and which are fl atlining. The

data shows schools’ “ultimate

bar pass rate,” wh ich is the

percentage of graduates

who passed the bar within

two years of grad uation.

Nationwide, nearly 88 per-

cent of 2015 gra ds passed

the exam within two years.

Baylor University School

of Law ranked highest—all

109 of its stud ents passed.

The University o f Detroit

Mercy School o f Law ranked

lowest in 2015, a t under 57

percent.

Source: americanbar

.org (March 12).

Lonely Lawyers

Lawyers and doctors ranked highest

on a “loneliness scale” survey published

in the Harva rd Business Review. The study

polled more tha n 1,600 wor kers, with 61

percent of lawyers ranking above average

on the loneliness scale. Those with pro-

fessional degrees in law and medi cine

were 25 percent lonelier than those with

bachelor’s degrees and 20 percent lone-

lier than those with PhDs. “The solitude

of the ivory tower s eems to be a real

phenomenon,” study authors wrote.

Source: hbr.org (March 19).

Drone Delivery

Inmates are reportedly using drone technology to smuggle contraband

behind prison walls. Authorities are investigating at least two drone drops

at Florida priso ns during a 30 -day period . Illegal items dropped by the

drones included a cellphone and tobacco. The deliveries were “camou-

fl aged” in grass clippings. Correctional o cers on high alert to deal with

this budding problem were able to intercept the packages. The Florida

Department of Corrections says drone drops are a problem plaguing pris-

ons across the nation. Source: pnj.com (March 24).