Neighborhood Justice Center

Legal representation & advice: the Neighborhood Justice Center's primary program is our legal representation and advice program. This program provides assistance to disadvantaged and underserved persons who face criminal charges and need extended legal representation, brief legal service and/or advice only to obtain the best possible outcome. Njc specifically seeks to serve communities of color and other populations who are targeted by law enforcement and not always treated equally under the law. Many of the clients represented also face immigration consequences because defendants increasingly are refugees or immigrants with charges against them that could result in deportation proceedings. Staff look beyond the immediate legal problems to serve the whole person, helping to arrange such services as housing assistance, chemical dependency and/ or mental health treatment. Bilingual, bicultural community advocates and law clerks fill paralegal and research needs, serve as liaisons between clients and the court system, and help educate clients to avoid future problems. This program also includes legal defense service njc provides through the ramsey county treatment courts, and our legal advice services. In this, our 50th year of service to the community we reflect on our origin and purpose. Njc was created in 1973 to serve people from throughout or diverse community, with focus on communities of color and other traditionally disenfranchised groups. In the last fiscal year njc statistics demonstrate that 67% of njc clients were people of color, with our client-identified statistical breakdown being 40% african american/ black, 33% caucasian, 15% hispanic, 3% american indian, 2% east african, 2% east asian, and 5% self-identified as other/ mixed race. These numbers demonstrate that njc is still focused on serving communities of color and ensuring that people from all walks of life have access to quality legal representation regardless of their ability to pay. Our legal representation and advice program during the 2022-23 fiscal year served approximately 1600 community members. This includes 410 formal criminal cases where njc attorneys provided full-service legal representation for any legal issue arising in cases ranging from low level misdemeanors to the highest level felonies. Njc attorneys are highly trained, experienced attorneys who have a proven history of effective and zealous advocacy for our clients. As part of our dedication to defense of the community we also served an additional approximately 220 clients served through our defense role in the ramsey county treatment courts, where we assist community members in need with getting access to the best treatment resources available in our community to make chemical and mental health conditions more manageable, and ensure that the client gets the best possible opportunities and outcomes from these specialty courts. This treatment-focused program helps people regain control of their lives and avoid unnecessary prison consequences that harm the individual, their family and the community. The legal advice portion of this program has been very active this fiscal year. With new criminal, expungement and corrections related law changes made by the legislature, njc has received an abundance of advice requests. In the last year njc attorneys have provided free legal advice to over 1040 community members. This number includes approximately 200 advice requests that took over a half hour and may have required outside contacts, and/or other services to meet the individual's need. Njc believes that our advice program is an essential service as there are near no free criminal legal advice services in Minnesota, and there is a huge public demand for quality legal advice.

Expungements: njc offers comprehensive criminal expungement legal representation to assist those who have criminal cases or arrests in their past from Minnesota and are now facing ongoing repercussions because off this record. Njc believes that our criminal Justice system relies on the fact that people can be rehabilitated, and those who have shown a commitment to change deserve to have their records expunged and an opportunity to move on from past mistakes. Expungements benefit both the individual and the community, because the community needs reformed people back in the work force and using their talents to the best of their ability. When given this second chance, the individual will then have the ability for upward social mobility, promoting growth for the family and the community. Njc provides full service expungement representation, from the initial consultation through all stages of litigation. In the 2022-23 fiscal year njc served clients on 125 expungement petitions in counties throughout the state of mn. Of the petitions that came to final decision, over 99% were granted in full, giving these community members better future opportunities. This program is quickly growing due to community demand. As a result, njc filed 26% more expungements during this fiscal year than in our 21-22 fiscal year.

Community outreach: njc's community outreach and education program was created to ensure that the community has free access to legal information, in accessible formats. Our community outreach and education program focuses on serving low income persons, juveniles, refugees and immigrants from various cultures, and also seeks to educate the broader community about the realities and needs of people like our clients. This program's goal is to educate the community about the law by clarifying what constitutes illegal behavior, how to avoid criminal behavior, and how to effectively and safely interact with law enforcement, while still retaining and enforcing your constitutional rights. Our community outreach can take many forms from large presentations, small group discussions, digital meetings, tabling events, as well as access to our community outreach resources on our website. We partner with non-profits, schools, shelters, pro bono partners and other similar programs to help community members gain access to vital legal information. In the past community outreach consisted of pamphlets and sitting around a table. Today, to meet the modern needs of our clients we use web-based outreach and social media to connect with the community and potential clients. This has quickly become our most active and successful means of community outreach and we have grown this portion of the program accordingly. In the last year, in- person we reached over 475 community members during variety of events, and provided another approximately 100 homeless individuals free legal services through our partnership with the dorothy day Center in st. paul, where we visit every-other week to assist community members address legal barriers that impact their housing and employment circumstances. While our in-person community outreach numbers have increased since the pandemic, our greatest area of impact and growth was through digital services. In the last fiscal year we reached over 23,000 via our website, where most visitors utilized our blog posts, which focus are practical discussions about modern legal issues that impact our communities. Further, we reached an addition approximately 7000 individuals through social media posts, which also educate the community on pertinent legal issues. Njc is a small organization, but through creative and modern approaches, we are able to reach people in need in every corner of our community.