Press Release:
Arnold Ventures Awards Grant to the Collateral Consequences Resource Center

April 30, 2020

Washington, D.C. — The Collateral Consequences Resource Center (CCRC) is pleased to announce the award of an operating grant of $200,000 from Arnold Ventures.  The grant will support our program of research and technical assistance on restoration of rights and record relief following arrest or conviction, enabling us to expand our efforts to track and assess legislative trends as states around the Nation, and continue working to improve opportunities for people with a criminal record.

“We are delighted to be able to support the Collateral Consequences Resource Center’s pioneering work in support of reintegrating people with a criminal record,” said Jeremy Travis, Executive Vice President of Criminal Justice for Arnold Ventures.  “The Restoration of Rights Project is unique in its national scope and comprehensive nature, and it has become an authoritative resource for advocates and practitioners alike during an extraordinarily fruitful period of legal reforms.”

The Restoration of Rights Project, CCRC’s most widely used resource, describes and analyzes the various laws and practices relating to criminal record relief in each U.S. jurisdiction, covering restoration of civil rights, pardon, record-sealing, diversionary dispositions, and fair employment and occupational licensing.  In addition to individual state profiles, it includes a series of 50-state comparison charts covering different relief mechanisms.  CCRC publishes quarterly and year-end summary reports on new legislation based on this data, as well as an overview of national record relief laws and policies, making it easy to see patterns and emerging trends to encourage and guide further reforms.  CCRC also publishes policy recommendations, including model legislation and white papers, and its staff participates in discussions of current policy issues, most recently relating to barriers to federal relief during the COVID-19 pandemic based on arrest or conviction.

“First and foremost, this grant allows CCRC to sustain its ongoing work, which has become both more important and more demanding due to the surge of new restoration laws in 2019 and the widespread concern about record-related restrictions on pandemic relief in 2020,” said Margaret Love, CCRC’s Executive Director.  “We also expect to expand an existing program of technical assistance, to inform and guide law reform initiatives under consideration or already underway in light of developments in other jurisdictions and in the broader national context.  We plan to study access barriers in several jurisdictions, with an eye toward making relief mechanisms more broad-based and effective.  Studies have found that the best intentions of legislators are frequently frustrated because so few of those eligible for relief even apply for it.  Many jurisdictions are working to reduce this so-called uptake gap, and we look forward to supporting their efforts with our national perspective.”

“Given the COVID-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever that governments extend relief to people with a criminal record and not subject them to unnecessary burdens and restraint,” said Gabriel “Jack” Chin, Chair of CCRC’s Board and a law professor at UC Davis School of Law.

The Collateral Consequences Resource Center (CCRC) is a nonprofit established in 2014 to promote public engagement on legal and policy issues raised by the collateral consequences of arrest and conviction.  Board members include Gabriel “Jack” Chin (UC Davis School of Law), Nora V. Demleitner (Washington and Lee University School of Law), Roberta “Toni” Meyers (National HIRE Network), John Rubin (UNC School of Government), Kate Stith (Yale Law School), and Judy Whiting (CSSNY).

Contact: Margaret Love at (202) 547-0453, margaretlove@pardonlaw.com, or David Schlussel at david@ccresourcecenter.org.