University Law students, with the help of local attorneys, are launching an education initiative this month for local individuals convicted of nonviolent crimes.
The initiative will take place at Piedmont House, a transitional facility for recently incarcerated males, and will aim to educate residents about their rights and provide legal assistance by offering a variety of educational programs. The program will officially launch April 11 with a legal information session on suspended licenses.
The Law students launching the program are members of the Virginia Law in Prison Project, which aims to integrate Law students into the Charlottesville community and promote legal advocacy related to prisons. The students from the organization have been planning the Piedmont House education initiative for the past year.
Tex Pasley, a third-year Law student, helped create the Virginia Law in Prison Project as a first-year Law student, and is now co-president of the organization alongside second-year Law student Maggie Birkel. Both students have been working on the education initiative this year.
“As a group, we wanted to get involved with the local community in some way where we could use legal skills to help people who were incarcerated or who were recently incarcerated,” Pasley said. “It’s a really great opportunity for Law students to get hands on experience working with clients and with legal issues that matter to people.”
Second-year Law student Nicole Lawler had the idea for the project while she was living near Piedmont House last year. She frequently saw the sign for the house, and decided to research the organization’s mission.
“I thought it would be a great way for Law students to connect more with the local community in Charlottesville,” Lawler said. “Because I feel like a lot of times, we just tend to stay at the Law School and don’t really get involved with the greater community.”
This semester, the education program will consist of informational sessions and clinics led by attorneys from both the Legal Justice Aid Center and the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, as well as presentations from the Law students.
“I think it's something that a lot of students would be interested in, and would be a great way to get 1Ls and 2Ls some legal experience in the field and engaging with the community,” Lawler said.
This semester, the program will kickstart with Law students being able to build connections with the men at Piedmont House, Lawler said. In the future, she hopes to see the program grow into a more sustainable hands-on legal assistance organization.
“Ideally, we would like to see it transcend into a more robust legal assistance program, where we’d be able to go and give the men advice on specific issues that they’re having reengaging with the community,” Lawler said. “But at this point, it was hard to find a supervising attorney that would be willing to come on a regular basis to be able to set that up.”
Palma Pustilnik, senior staff attorney and director of the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society in Charlottesville, will lead a clinic about family law April 26. She will be speaking to residents primarily about custody, visitation and child support.
“The faster, more thoroughly and more appropriately we reintegrate those released from incarceration back into their communities, the more ownership and responsibility they feel in their communities, and the less likely there is to be recidivism,” Pustilnik said.
Pasley also said he hopes for the continued support of local attorneys in the education initiative.
“My hope for it is that this can be a regular thing where we can have a group of local attorneys who are willing to help us out and sponsor students,” Pasley said.
The initiative will begin April 11, when attorney Mario Salas from the Legal Aid Justice Center will speak to Piedmont House residents about the issue of suspended licenses.
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