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Holistic Advocacy - Linking social work and criminal defense

Life of a Holistic Advocacy Case, Shared Knowledge

February 19, 2009

Criminal Defense and Social Work: Makes Sense, Right?

I would argue that all crimes committed- however harmful, illogical, misguided, or seemingly senseless-  were intended by the people who committed them to serve some kind of good in their lives.  The factors and variables that contribute to criminal behavior in any given individual are convoluted to say the least.  Law violations can not be explained away by statements like, “He knows the difference between right and wrong - and he chose to do wrong” or “She is just not a good person.”  A person steals because s/he felt as if the item being taken would bring him or her something good - financial resources, status, respect from peers, etc.  All people want what is good.  The problem is that not all people have great insight as to what is actually good.  They may just need someone they trust to  help them reframe what is good and develop the skills to obtain it.

Right now, it is rare for professionals in the criminal justice system to ask why someone committed a crime - especially prior to the conviction.  All they want to know is, “did you do it?” and “what do you deserve?”  If they were asked, the person accused would be unlikely to be able to see all of the dynamics that led to their criminal behavior.  And even if they did have that level of insight, it would be even more unlikely that the punitive measures they received as a result would specifically address those causal factors in an attempt to prevent future violations and/or invoke more positive outcomes for the individual and the community.

Here are the issues:

  1. Here in Travis County, you nearly always have to take a conviction to get services.

  2. The assessments to establish the needs of the individual are nearly nonexistant, severely faulty, and certainly not strengths-based.

  3. The services which most people on probation (or in jail) receive are generally substandard and almost never individualized.

If we, as a society, want to be serious about keeping our communities healthy and safe, we need to commit to changing our strategies for addressing the criminal behaviors of people who live in our communities.

This is where Social Work in a criminal defense setting comes in.

What is Social Work?
According to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the primary mission of the social work profession is to:

  • Enhance human well­-being
  • Help meet the basic human needs of all people
  • Pay particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, living in poverty
  • Focus on individual well­-being in a social context and the well-­being of society
  • Pay attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living

What is a Social Worker?
According to the NASW, Social Workers:

  • Promote social justice and social change with and on behalf of clients. “Clients” is used inclusively to refer to individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities
  • Are sensitive to cultural and ethnic diversity and strive to end discrimination, oppression, poverty, and other forms of social injustice
  • Seek to enhance the capacity of people to address their own needs
  • Seek to promote the responsiveness of organizations, communities, and other social institutions to individuals’ needs and social problems.

If social work and criminal defense aren’t a perfect fit, then I don’t know what is.

Social Workers are experts at examining a person in his or her environment.  We think about the big picture.  We value the process just as much as the product.  Therefore, it makes complete sense to have Social Workers heavily involved in the criminal defense of a defendant FROM THE ONSET of a case.  Who better to be a member of a team whose sole purpose is to be a zealous advocate for the client?  Clearly criminal defense attorneys and social workers share core values and complementary services.

In the context of a criminal defense law firm, some of the services that social workers can contribute are:

  • Client In-takes (including psycho-social assessments, strengths assessments,  and other basic clients assessments)
  • Gathering mitigation
  • Service Referrals (especially prior to conviction)
  • Strengthening the client’s support network by supporting the family
  • Client Advocacy (especially with prosecutors)
  • Assistance in Life-goal setting and obtainment
  • Recommendations for Expert Evaluations
  • Casework (ensuring that clients are adhering to social work plan and also successfully meeting requirements of the court; i.e. probation, classes, treatment, etc.)
  • Brief counseling (dealing with client and family’s frustration of criminal process, motivating, encouraging, mentoring)
  • Crisis Intervention

The next installments of this blog will explain how we accomplish these tasks at Sumpter & Gonzalez.

the blog

February 9, 2009

This Blog’s Stake in the Ground

Like the father of a newborn, I spent the weekend thinking about my hopes and dreams for this blog.  Then, I went into social worker mode.  Something I always say to my clients rung out, “You gotta have a plan.  Drive a stake in the ground ahead of you and keep walking toward it.  If you don’t have that stake, you’ll just wander all over the place and you’ll tag along with the first person you meet who does have a stake, for better or for worse.”  And, true to form, that has been my struggle with getting this blog rolling.  I had no agenda.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it. And, as you can see, the entries up to this point are really random.  Well, no more.  I am driving this blog’s stake in the ground.

I would like to use this blog to begin documenting the process of Holistic Advocacy as we have been practicing it at Sumpter & Gonzalez.  When we started our strategic planning process to move to a new type of criminal defense, we had a real struggle with finding who was doing what out there and how they were doing it.  We did a lot of research.  There definitely were not a lot of academic articles on the interaction between criminal defense and social work.  The two main articles which directly involved our vision were written by Robin Steinberg and Lynn Barenberg.  We would hear from other professionals that certain organizations were doing something similar to our vision.  Then, we had to start cold calling people to try to ask them questions that informed our process.  This actually worked out well.  It was a great way to network as a young professional and all the people we talked to were fantastic (Special thanks to Lynn Barenberg and Norma Wassel).  As far as we know, there are only a hand full of organizations that practice criminal defense AND have a social work staff.  There are many criminal defenders who have JD/MSW degrees, but we were really looking for programmatic developments.  There are many, many other legal organizations who use social workers such as legal aid, family law, social security lawyers, and schools of law; but very few in criminal defense.  Further, all of the criminal defenders that we could find that had social work programs were public defenders - no private firms.  For us, a private firm, this makes all the difference in the world.  We are not a non-profit and we have no public funding streams.  Essentially, we are doing a ton of additional work with no additional funding.  Regardless, the point is that we had to start from scratch.  Now, just 9 short months later, we’ve come a very long way AND we have a long way to go.

I would now like to start sharing what we’ve learned with the hope that:

  • We can help other criminal defenders to launch their social work programs (do it, it makes a lot of sense and it works)
  • Others who may be doing this work can share their knowledge with us to help us improve our work
  • We can build a community of forensic social workers.

Here’s my working agenda:

  1. Why the marriage between social work and criminal defense makes sense
  2. How we strategically developed our program
  3. The Life of a Sumpter & Gonzalez Case (in step by step installments)

In between postings directly associated with the agenda above, I may:

  1. Celebrate some successes
  2. Share something I recently learned (to include mistakes I’ve made)
  3. Call (beg, plead) for help and guidance

This blog is all about sharing and learning from each other.  Please:

  • comment freely
  • be very, very critical of our process.  It’s the only way that we’re going to get better.
  • share what you know
  • ask for clarification or more information in your comments
  • share with others who might be interested in this process

In advance, I appreciate everyone’s support and shared knowledge.



(published by dan for Athan Schindler)

Request for Info, Shared Knowledge

The Iron Rule: A Young Social Workers Dilemma

When I was in grad school, a professor (Dr. Streeter to be exact) said something to our class that has resonated with me ever since.  He said, “There’s an Iron Rule in Social Work.  It’s iron because it’s not flexible or bendable.  You should never work harder than your client.  You will not do your client any good by doing everything for him.”

I have bought into this philosophy.  For me, it’s the whole “teaching someone to fish vs. giving them a fish” argument.  As a Social Worker, I have worked very hard to establish my professional boundaries - to draw the line in the sand that I will not cross.  I take great pride in integrity and sticking to my values.  Up to this point, I have not broken this rule.  Or, at least I’ve tried really hard not to.

One problem, though. I’m a Social Worker in a criminal defense law firm.  By nature, our clients aren’t always the most responsible people in the world.  They don’t always come to appointments- regardless of how many times you remind them.  They certainly don’t always follow through with plans and action items.  Don’t get me wrong; many do.  However, the ones who could usually benefit most from an social worker’s assistance and the ones who usually REALLY need an excellent outcome in their criminal case, do not.

I have a true passion for being an agent of change for the people I serve.  I really, really want them to achieve success - whatever that means for them.  Problematically, I often find myself wanting their success more than they do.  OK, ok… I’m exaggerating.  Or am I?  It certainly feels that way.  And, I know I can’t make anyone do something they don’t want to do.

My question is: How can I empower my clients to invest their time and energy into their own lives and their own goals to their fullest potential?

I’m sure I’m really showing my inexperience as a social worker here, but it will be worth it if I could gain some tools and resources from some seasoned social workers.

(published by dan for Athan Schindler)

 

Uncategorized

January 30, 2009

Holistic Advocacy

The Problem, As We See It: Fear as the Main Motivator

Texas’ justice system is driven by fear: “Don’t screw up, or you’ll be arrested.” “Obey the Court’s orders or your probation will be revoked.” “Don’t reoffend because the punishment will be worse next time.”

But fear does not motivate.

The increasing rate of incarceration confirms that fear is not an effective deterrent. While people should be accountable for their behavior, there is now an impressive body of evidence that the way to change behavior is not through punishment, but through repetitive, positive reinforcement of desirable behavior.

Those accused of a crime enter a system with multiple points of contact, including police officers, jailors, lawyers, judges, counselors, probation officers, and various service providers. Offenders are often ping-ponged between service providers that have little time to understand the nuances of each client’s situation. In this system, people are told to succeed, but they often receive inadequate attention and assessment, and incapable counsel.

The Solution We Believe In

We believe that long-standing change can only happen when people feel safe to fail, but inspired to change. We are a team of lawyers and social workers who understand and believe in holistic advocacy, which means that our lawyers want to address not only the client’s legal issues, but also the host of factors that have driven them into the justice system. We also understand that lawyers are not always the best-trained people to address mental health issues, school-related issues, job-skills issues, family dynamic issues, poverty issues, and so on; and lawyers often do not have the time to do this important work.

In each of our cases, the legal team will:

    • Zealously defend the unjustly accused.

For those whose arrest was endemic of more troubling problems:

    • Produce any and all appropriate legal motions.
    • Present mitigation evidence to the court and negotiate with prosecutors and the court for so that the client can work our program.
    • Negotiate guideposts with prosecutors and the court by which the client’s success will be measured at the end of that time.
    • Present the client’s accomplishments to the court at the end of the determinate term and urge a positive disposition for the client.
    • When necessary, proceed to trial on the case.

The social work team will:

    • Conduct a detailed initial assessment of each client.
    • Strive to address the underlying causes of a client’s involvement in the justice system and look for creative solutions to clients’ problems that lie outside of the courtroom.
    • Partner with the clients to develop a plan that will promote the cient and family’s long-term stability and empower the client and family in executing the plan.
    • Develop mitigation evidence.
    • Refer out mental health, substance abuse, and family counseling, if needed.
    • Assist clients and families in finding and keeping jobs.
    • Assist clients with education-related issues.

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