6-Hour Program

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Overview

Why You Should Attend

Voters overwhelmingly approved California’s landmark Proposition 47, the Safe Neighborhoods & Schools Act, on November 4, 2014, making California the first state in the nation to end felony sentencing for possessing small quantities of drugs and for petty theft. The law took effect on November 5th and had an immediate impact on tens of thousands of pending cases. Proposition 47 also allows Californians with past low-level non-violent felony convictions to clean up their records, removing obstacles that block them from education and career success. However, most eligible individuals have only until November 2017 to petition for retroactive relief.

At the time of Prop 47’s passage, as many as 10,000 incarcerated Californians were eligible to apply for resentencing, and hundreds of thousands of Californians immediately became eligible to seek a reclassification of a previous felony conviction to a misdemeanor. Since then, thousands of resentencing petitions have been filed and judges have resentenced and released more than 4,000 people from state prison. At the local level, Public Defenders and reentry legal service providers around the state have mobilized to provide relief to as many eligible people as possible, but the clock is ticking and more legal services are needed.

What You Will Learn

  • Content and impact of Proposition 47, the Safe Neighborhoods & Schools Act
  • How Prop 47 resentencing works in practice, including case law updates
  • Nuts and bolts on petitioning for resentencing and filing for reclassification
  • How to read a California Department of Justice RAP sheet
  • An overview of California reentry record remedies, including Penal Code section 1203.4 set aside and dismissal (“expungement”) and Certificate of Rehabilitation
  • An overview of the impact of Prop 47 and other new California laws on immigrants with conviction histories
  • The benefits and limits of Prop 47 relief with respect to immigration consequences, professional licensing, employment, voting, jury service and gun rights
  • How to work with clients with conviction histories
  • Where to direct low-income clients for reentry legal services and other support
  • How attorneys can plug into pro bono networks to provide Prop 47 legal services in underserved areas
  • How pro bono managers can create their own Prop 47 program

Who Should Attend

  • Legal services lawyers
  • Criminal defense lawyers
  • Pro bono managers and lawyers
  • Immigration attorneys
  • Law students
  • Anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of implementation of voter-approved Proposition 47

The training will be particularly useful for legal advocates who provide or are interested in providing reentry legal services in California, and will prove helpful for new attorneys and for those with experience who want to explore new areas of practice.

Credit Details