Racial Justice Project

Conference Video Now Available

Challenging the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at New York Law School

The Racial Justice Project is pleased to announce that the video of our recent conference is now available online. The Project cosponsored a symposium with the American Civil Liberties Union this April. The conference addressed the school-to-prison pipeline, a term used to describe the formal and informal mechanisms by which students are funneled from the educational system to the prison system.

To read more about the conference or to view the videos, please click here.

About the Project

The Racial Justice Project is a legal advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the constitutional and civil rights of people who have been denied those rights on the basis of race and to increase public awareness of racism and racial injustice in the areas of education, employment, political participation, and criminal justice. The Racial Justice Project’s advocacy includes litigation, training, and public education.

The Project is actively engaged in three initiatives:

Collateral sanctions resource guide: Upon being released from prison, ex-offenders face “collateral sanctions”—a vast and increasing maze of mandatory exclusions from valuable social programs and employment opportunities that impede their hopes of success in the free world. The collateral sanctions resource guide compiles these consequences and discusses how they could impact the ex-offender. The guide is intended as a resource for both ex-offenders and advocates.

Education litigation: The Project has joined as co-counsel with the National Legal Department of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation to challenge educational inequality and the school-to-prison pipeline. The Project assists the ACLU with the development, filing, and prosecution of the suit. Click here for more details or to view documents related to the Project's litigation efforts.

Street Law project: Spring 2009 marks the second year of the Street Law program at New York Law School ("NYLS"). NYLS has teamed up with the non-profit organization, Groundwork, Inc. (www.groundworkinc.org), as well as the New York office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver, and Jacobson LLP in an effort to teach high school students about the law and legal profession. Through their participation, law students increase their legal knowledge and lawyering skills, develop new perspectives, and enrich their overall law school experience.

The purposes of the Street Law program include teaching practical law as it affects laypersons in their daily lives; developing a positive attitude on the part of students toward law and the legal system; improving critical thinking and problem solving skills; examining moral and ethical values; and exposing students to vocational opportunities within the legal system.

This year's curriculum has expanded to include not only the Fourth Amendment, but also the First Amendment as well as an introduction to terrorism and government surveillance powers under the USA Patriot Act. In particular, the curriculum addresses the protections afforded to youth both in the public domain and within the walls of a public school.

For further information on the Project, please contact the Project's Director, Deborah Archer, at darcher@nyls.edu. For information on the Justice Action Center generally, please contact the Center at jac@nyls.edu.