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Beginning Feb. 16, 2nd Street will welcome walk-ins every Thursday from 1-3 pm.

During the free sessions, formerly incarcerated persons can receive advice on:

• How to appropriately interact with law enforcement to avoid escalation
• What information about a criminal record must be shared with prospective employers
• What information about a person’s criminal history is required to be disclosed to a landlord
• Whether a criminal record may be sealed or expunged
• The impact of criminal records on securing affordable housing and/or employment, and whether CLA can be of assistance

The 2nd Street offices are located at 264 Second Street, Pittsfield.

To learn more about Community Legal Aid, which provides free civil legal services to low-income and elderly residents of Central and Western Massachusetts, visit www.communitylegal.org.

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The clinic will be held at the 2nd Street offices, 264 Second St. Private consultations will be available. The clinic is particularly designed for those who have either never been found guilty of a charge or who have fulfilled the requirements of a guilty plea or verdict.

Such persons often have difficulty finding or keeping housing or employment due to their Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI), which landlords and employers commonly use for background checks.

Legal experts will be on hand to help decode CORI and determine if eligible charges may be sealed or expunged.

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Annie Maurer WAMC (Recording) by Community Legal Aid

A workshop on sealing or expunging criminal records will be held in Pittsfield, Massachusetts February 10th. Anyone who has been charged with a crime in the commonwealth will have a Criminal Offender Record Information or CORI report appear in background checks regularly used by employers and landlords. For those seeking to rebuild their lives after being incarcerated or navigating the criminal legal system, that record can complicate getting a job, securing housing, and more. The event at 264 Second Street is being held by the re-entry program 2nd Street Second Chances – which is backed by the Berkshire County Sheriff’s Office – as well as Community Legal Aid and the Committee for Public Counsel Services. WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes spoke with Community Legal Aid attorney Annie Maurer.

MAURER: The first part of the clinic is just informing people who have criminal backgrounds what their rights are when they apply for jobs and for housing, to help folks get a sense of what to expect during that process, what people are going to have access to, and what the rules are with respect to disclosing their background, and what employers and housing providers are allowed to ask people about their backgrounds. And then the second part is educating people about how to steal or expunge their record if they’re eligible for that. And we will assist people who are eligible financially for legal aid to follow that process, and also inform people who are not how to go about doing it themselves.

WAMC: Can you explain what criminal charges can do to impact people’s lives that might make sealing them valuable?

We have clients who come to us all the time after having been denied employment or housing because of their criminal record. It can be a huge barrier to successfully reentering after you’ve served time in prison or jail, or even if you have not served any time, it can really devastate your ability to have income, provide for your family, find stable housing.

What is the process like to seal criminal records?

It’s complicated. It depends on a bunch of different factors. For instance, the biggest factor is the length of time it has been since you have had an offence- And I’m just talking about Massachusetts law. But what we do is, we evaluate somebody’s CORI to find out if they’re eligible for administrative sealing. There are other types of sealing they might be eligible for if they don’t have convictions. So, if they just have dismissals or non-convictions on their record, they might be able to ask a judge to seal their record before the three years for a misdemeanor or seven years for a felony. There are some offenses which are never sealable. So, we advise our clients which offenses on the record are in fact, sealable as well.

It strikes me that this kind of ability to seal these records would probably be a great boon to folks trying to get back on their feet following incarceration or following experiences with the criminal legal system. Do you find that this is a valuable tool for people trying to move forward with their lives?

Definitely. While having a criminal record can create a lot of barriers for folks, Massachusetts law also has a lot of protections for people who are able to access sealing. So, the employers and housing providers are not going to necessarily be able to see the sealed offenses, and it lets people just have a fresh start and be able to put their best foot forward.

What do you feel like are common misconceptions about criminal records?

I think that a lot of people, or a lot of employers, have concern about hiring people with criminal records. They don’t necessarily feel like they can trust that individual, and I think that the research has shown that people who have had experience in the criminal legal system come to that for a variety of reasons and that doesn’t necessarily reflect on their ability to hold down a job, be a productive part of a staff, or be a good tenant. So, there are tons of misconceptions out there, depending on the different types of offenses that employers and housing providers might find on someone’s record.

Is there an equity component to this? There’s a lot of research about systemic discrimination that happens within the criminal legal system. Do you see this kind of work in sealing criminal records to address equity concerns in the system writ large?

Of course. the criminal legal system disproportionately affects people of color, people with disabilities, and that disproportionate effect gets carried over to all of the civil legal consequences of a criminal record. So, you’re going to see the same disparate impact happening to communities of color and people with disabilities because they just carry through.

What do you see as some of the biggest gaps in the reentry process for folks transitioning out of incarceration or experiences in the criminal legal system?

There are different barriers, I think, depending on the stage you are in coming out of the system. So, people who are immediately leaving custody or facing just very basic barriers. They might not have their identification, they might not know how to access health care, they might not have their health insurance set up. And so just getting those very basic things set up can be very onerous. And then as people do reintegrate, there are a lot of other barriers. For instance, the work that I do, which is helping folks access employment and stable housing for the long term.

Is there anything about this event next week that I’ve not thought to ask you that you think it’s important for folks to understand?

Well, I just want to add that Community Legal Aid is offering this clinic at 2nd Street Second Chances, which is a pretty new reentry program in Berkshire County. It’s right in Pittsfield. And we are just one of the many partner organizations who works with 2nd Street. There are a lot of organizations that provide mental health services, substance use services, all kinds of services that people who have experienced the criminal legal system can access at 2nd Street. So, all the community partners are trying to get together and sort of be a hub of services there.

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The office suite will be shared with CLA, which currently uses the space as a satellite office.

Expanding to North Adams will allow the program to bring services closer to where its clients live, according to Executive Director Jason Cuyler.

Beginning Feb. 1, 2nd Street will meet with clients by appointment only. To schedule an appointment call 413-443-7220, ext. 1275.

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Winter 2022 Print Newsletter by Community Legal Aid

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Community Legal Aid education work in Worcester County aims to help at least 50 students and their families know their rights in the special education and school discipline processes. With the Foundation’s support, Community Legal Aid will provide free legal assistance to low-income students who have disabilities that the school is failing to address appropriately with adequate services. This includes work representing children with disabilities at IEP and 504 meetings as well. The work will also entail providing legal assistance to students faced with unlawful or unfair disciplinary actions which excludes them from the classroom, including representing students at principal suspension or expulsion hearings and superintendent appeals.

Students may also be eligible for legal assistance if their language access rights have been violated or they have been denied access to school or treated improperly because they have experienced homelessness.

In addition, after years of schools toggling between remote, hybrid, and in-person learning, Community Legal Aid advises families on COVID-specific issues, including compensatory services such as tutoring to make up for lost learning time, and how to support students with social/emotional impairments who experience exacerbations as they transition back to school.

With all of these services, Community Legal Aid works to facilitate better communication between schools and families, with the goal of helping to ensure that at-risk students remain and succeed in school.

If a young person between the ages of 3 and 22 is experiencing any difficulties related to their education and would like to apply for help, please call Community Legal Aid’s intake line at 855-CLA-LEGAL (855-252-5342) or apply online at https://communitylegal.org/get-help/.

About Community Legal Aid:
Community Legal Aid provides free civil legal services to the low-income and elderly residents of the five counties of Western and Central Massachusetts (Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester), and maintains offices in Worcester, Fitchburg, Springfield, Northampton, and Pittsfield. CLA works to assure fairness for all in the justice system, protecting homes, livelihoods, health and families. For more information, please visit www.communitylegal.org.

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WORCESTER, MA — If you’re like many, you’ve spent the last few days after Thanksgiving immersed in consumerism on Black Friday, Shop Small Saturday and Cyber Monday. Giving Tuesday on Nov. 29 is a chance to turn your attention to local nonprofit groups seeing an alarming decline in small gifts.

Since 2012, nonprofits, community and grassroots groups, and mutual aid networks worldwide have used Giving Tuesday to galvanize fundraising, rally volunteers and add momentum to their causes.

Local nonprofits are having a particularly tough time this year. The number of donors shrunk by 7 percent in the first half of 2022, largely due to a “collapse” in the number of small-gift supporters, according to the most recent Giving Tuesday quarterly fundraising report.

Donors giving $100 or less were down 17 percent in the first six months of the year, and 8 percent fewer donors made gifts of $101 to $500, according to the report.

You likely have your own favorite causes among the nonprofits, community and grassroots groups and mutual aid organizations that address local needs in Worcester. Some worthy causes here include, but are not limited to:

• African Community Education

• Audio Journal

• Mustard Seed Catholic Worker

• Living in Freedom Together (LIFT)

• Abby’s House

• Woo Fridge

• Southeast Asian Coalition

• Cinema-Worcester

• Regional Environmental Council

• Community Legal Aid

• AIDS Project Worcester

• Greater Worcester Land Trust

(If you have a suggestion for this list, email neal.mcnamara@patch.com)

There are some bright spots in the fundraising report, released by the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, a research effort of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Foundation for Philanthropy and Giving Tuesday.

Importantly, although the pool of donors shrunk in the first half of 2022, the dollars contributed increased 6.2 percent as major donors stepped up. At the same time, the increase in large donor contributions was outpaced by second-quarter inflation rate of about 8.5 percent.

“Recaptured donors” — people who at one point had given to an organization, but not in the most recent reporting period — grew by 6.3 percent.

That group likely includes people who supported a charity in a surge of pandemic giving in 2020, as well as those who paused their charitable donations during the first two years of the pandemic and gave again this year, according to Lori Gusdorf, executive vice president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals group, said in a news release.

The key takeaway for charities is to stay in contact with donors and include them in fundraising pitches, regardless of when they last gave, Gusdorf said.

The report “underlines the importance of employing targeted strategies for retaining this key donor segment, especially in times of economic volatility, when donors are more frequently evaluating their financial commitments,” she said.

Giving Tuesday was created in New York City in 2012 with a simple goal: to encourage people to do good. Over the past nine years, the idea has grown into the global movement it is today.

The goal of Giving Tuesday is “radical generosity” — the concept that the suffering of others should be as intolerable to us as our own suffering, according to the movement’s website.

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