Reentry Attorney

About Root & Rebound:
Root & Rebound’s (R&R)’s mission is to increase access to justice and opportunity for people in the process of reentry from prison and jail, and to educate and empower those who support them, fundamentally advancing and strengthening the reentry infrastructure across the state of California and the country. R&R’s model is three-pronged: Educate, through online and printed legal guides and toolkits, and prison/jail and community-based legal trainings, Advocate, through a reentry legal hotline and clinics, and Reform, pushing for policy change at the local, state, and national level.

About the Anti-Recidivism Coalition:
The mission of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) is to change lives and create safe, healthy communities by providing a support and advocacy network for, and comprised of, formerly incarcerated young men and women. To accomplish this mission, ARC provides a supportive network and reentry services to formerly incarcerated individuals, and advocates for policies in the juvenile and criminal justice systems that promote youth investment and community healing, and provide meaningful opportunities for rehabilitation for incarcerated individuals. Today, ARC serves more than 450 members across its Los Angeles and Sacramento offices, providing wraparound supportive services, including case management, trauma counseling, mentorship opportunities, education and employment assistance, and transitional housing. ARC's advocacy efforts have led to numerous reforms in California’s justice system that have affected tens of thousands of incarcerated individuals across the state.

The Opportunity:
R&R and ARC are thrilled to partner together to hire a Reentry Attorney based out of ARC’s Los Angeles offices, in both its Sylmar housing location and main office in Downtown. By situating an attorney directly at ARC’s offices, this program will allow ARC to provide even stronger wraparound support to its members and the broader reentry community. The Reentry Attorney’s central job will be to help members prepare for, navigate, and overcome legal reentry barriers post-incarceration.

There are 45,000 people who parole annually to LA County from prison and 120,000 people who pass through LA County jails each year. Now as California leads the country with sweeping criminal justice reforms, including Prop36, Prop47, SB260, SB261, Prop57 and Prop64, there is an increasing obligation to ensure that these reforms are properly implemented. Through the work of the Reentry Attorney, R&R and ARC aim to increase access to housing, employment, family reunification, and financial stability for ARC members; assist in the implementation of new local and state policies that address legal barriers to reentry; and boost county-wide initiatives providing education and employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated people.

The reentry attorney will have a background in social justice, racial justice, and/or public interest work. The ideal candidate will be a self-starter, independent thinker, and collaborative team player who can speak up and communicate about needs, ideas, and new approaches. The attorney will not be afraid of taking risks, facing challenges head on, and iterating/changing course when a better approach needs to be taken with program design. The attorney will be managed and supervised by Root & Rebound’s Deputy Director of Programs and Partnerships, and must be comfortable and open to regular check ins via Skype, email, text, etc., as well as training and orientation periods in R&R’s Oakland HQ office. The attorney will coordinate with ARC’s Program Director to receive member referrals, identify new reentry legal needs among the membership, and share progress updates. The attorney may also coordinate with ARC’s Policy Director if policy advocacy opportunities are identified.

Responsibilities:
The Reentry Attorney will support ARC members and their families by:
- Working on-site as reentry legal navigation specialist: conducting intakes, providing legal advice and reentry-related support, making strong referrals, and taking on cases for representation as needed. Connecting ARC members and the Los Angeles community even more deeply to Root & Rebound’s statewide Reentry Legal Hotline.
- Coordinating regular Know Your Rights trainings and in-depth clinics on key reentry topics.
- Identifying issues that need a “systems change” solution, and elevating them to R&R and ARC policy advocacy teams.
- Recruiting and creating panel of pro bono attorneys to assist with legal clinics and take on direct representation, where appropriate. Recruiting law clerks, interns, and volunteers to support the legal program.

The Reentry Attorney will support the larger reentry infrastructure across Los Angeles by:
- Hosting bi-annual “Roadmap to Reentry” trainings and workshops for the wider network of Los Angeles/Southern California community-based organizations, parole and probation departments, higher education colleges, Blue Ribbon Commission on Employment Equity, and others around common reentry barriers, including family reunification questions, employment barriers, and discrimination.

The Reentry Attorney will support the overall ARC/R&R collaborative by managing administrative activities including:
- Representing R&R and ARC at community events and public forums, and serve as an ambassador for reentry advocacy issues more broadly.
- Supporting PR, Development, Communications, and Storytelling projects as needed.
- Tracking data and program outcomes, and sharing them with the wider Southern California community.
- Maintaining organized files, systems, and databases for all of Root & Rebound’s legal programs.
- Respond professionally and promptly to dynamic and ever-shifting programmatic demands in a startup environment, working collaboratively with our small but mighty team of reentry attorneys.
- Supporting both R&R and ARC in grant reporting.
- Conducting administrative tasks as needed.