In 2010 the US Department of Justice opened the Office for Access to Justice, a department intended to “address the access-to-justice crisis in the criminal and civil justice system”[i]. The department works with many different agencies across the federal, state and local governments to increase access to counsel and legal assistance for people who are unable to afford lawyers.
Among its many jobs, the department works to support the deeply underfunded legal aid system and to eliminate the criminalization of the poor. Often those who cannot afford legal counsel find themselves in jail. When a poorer person receives a fine as a penalty for some infraction, they often cannot pay. That means they default, a warrant is issued for their arrest and they are put in jail. That can result in them losing their jobs, their housing and cause them to abandon any education they may be working on, causing them to sink deeper into poverty. In addition, the poor cannot afford bail on even the smallest of charges, which imposes these grossly disproportionate penalties on the most vulnerable in our population.
On February 1, 2018, The New York Times reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has effectively shut down the department. While he cannot actually shut it down without notifying Congress, he can divert its budget to other projects. The staff of a dozen or so has left the department and the acting director has left to open a consulting business. [ii]
This action is an unfortunate betrayal of the Justice Department’s mission which includes insuring “fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.”
[i] Department of Justice website https://www.justice.gov/atj
[ii] New York Times, Feb 1, 2018, https://nyti.ms/2FzHVSA
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