Legal Action Center of the City of New York

Lac's policy initiatives promote laws, regulations, policies, and programming that increase work, housing, education, and health care access for people with conviction records, who use drugs and/or have substance use and mental health disorders, and people with hiv or aids. We focus on 1) shifting criminal Legal policy priorities from incarceration and punishment to harm reduction, treatment and rehabilitation; 2) eliminating employment, education, housing, insurance, and health care discrimination against our constituencies; and 3) dramatically expanding substance use, hiv/aids and mental health prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery and rehabilitation, including in the criminal Legal system. Integral to these priorities is a focus on dismantling the historic and persistent impact of systemic racism that has fueled mass incarceration and disparate community health systems. We pursue these goals at local, state, and federal levels. Lac's policy achievements over the last quarter century include: helping secure strong coverage of addiction and mental health care in the affordable care act. Orchestrating advocacy campaigns that helped over two dozen states opt out of or modify the federal lifetime ban on food stamps and cash assistance for people convicted of drug felonies. Participating in advocacy that restored pell grant eligibility to incarcerated individuals. Successfully advocating with the centers for medicare and medicaid services (cms) to establish demonstration programs that allow states to use federal medicaid funding to improve health care for individuals of all ages leaving incarceration and make it easier for older adults on parole, probation, or leaving the criminal Legal system to enroll in medicare. Helping lead campaigns in New York that: 1) won rockefeller drug law reform, 2) created an ombudsman program to help New yorkers navigate coverage and find treatment for substance use and mental health needs, 3) fully decriminalized syringe possession, 4) created an automatic civil sealing (clean slate) process for all misdemeanor and many felony convictions after a waiting period, and 5) created permanent, scalable funding streams for alternative to incarceration and re-entry programs. Creating groundbreaking Legal theories to combat discrimination and accelerate reforms to i) provide medications for opioid use disorder in the criminal Legal system and ii) deliver evidence-based treatment to people who use(d) drugs in hospitals, emergency departments, skilled nursing facilities, recovery, housing and other settings. Helping New York state establish groundbreaking medicaid enrollment policies for incarcerated individuals and pilot innovative care coordination strategies for people with chronic conditions returning to their communities from prisons and jails.

All other programs that allow (lac) to fight discrimination, build health equity, and restore opportunity for people with arrest and conviction records, substance use disorders, and hiv or aids.

Lac's legal-since our founding in 1973, we have helped tens of thousands of New yorkers overcome Legal barriers to accessing jobs, housing, healthcare, government benefits, and other services critical to their becoming productive members of society, maintaining their dignity, and getting and staying healthy. In 2023-2024 fiscal year alone, lac helped 972 New yorkers resolve 2,110 civil Legal cases. These cases concerned three primary issues: 912 clients had Legal problems related to a conviction record, 38 had Legal problems related to substance use disorder (that usually led to a conviction record), and 22 had Legal problems related to hiv/aids. Among other valuable services, we help individuals obtain employment, housing and benefits despite past criminal convictions or substance use disorders through a comprehensive range of civil Legal services, including assisting our clients to obtain and clean up their New York state rap sheets, seek and obtain certificates of good conduct or relief from disabilities that are often essential to finding jobs or acquiring professional licenses, prepare and file employment discrimination complaints with the New York state human rights division, and gather letters of reference and other evidence of rehabilitation. To broaden out impact and empower our clients, we also author and disseminate a wide variety of free publications that help pro se individuals (including incarcerated people) and other advocates understand and enforce their civil and privacy rights.in addition to our high volume Legal services project, lac conducts impact litigation throughout New York state. We litigate employment discrimination, privacy and civil rights matters in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies such as the New York state division and New York City commission on human rights, and federal agencies charged with enforcing federal anti-discrimination and health privacy laws. Our litigation generally involves novel issues of law and is designed to impact groups of people. We leverage our resources to pro bono partnerships with law firms whose attorney's either co-counsel matters with lac staff or handle them under our supervision. Lac provided training and technical assistance on Legal issues to Legal services providers and social services and healthcare agencies servicing people living with criminal records, substance use disorders and/or hiv/aids. In fy 2023-2024, our Legal and policy staff provided 92 trainings/presentations to staff and/or clients of agencies throughout New York state, including substance use disorder treatment programs, groups that assist formerly incarcerated people, agencies providing hiv prevention and care, and hospitals. Topics we have a trained on include employment discrimination (faced by people with criminal records, substance use disorders, and hiv/aids) confidentiality of substance use disorder treatment and hiv records, and minors' rights to access confidential treatment for hiv/aids, substance use disorder and other sensitive health issues. Our training complements our Legal services work: we keep trainees abreast of Legal developments, some of which we have achieved through litigation and policy advocacy, and we learn about issues people in the community (and their advocates) face and try to devise litigation and policies solutions. Through our hotline in fy 2023-2024, lac attorneys gave technical assistance to 116 agencies throughout New York on an array of Legal issues concerning individuals with criminal records, substance use disorders, and hiv. Many of these agencies avail themselves of our publications on relevant topics that we both distribute at training and provide for free download from our website.