New Tool Help People Navigate The Maze of Collateral Consequences

SCSJ staff attorney, Daryl V. Atkinson assists in the creation of a novel one stop portal (C-CAT) http://ccat.sog.unc.edu/ that provides North Carolina citizens a way to assess the full ramifications of their criminal justice involvement. Criminal convictions often lead to legal consequences other than jail, prison, or probation. For example, contact with the criminal justice system can result in felon disenfranchisement, deportation, and the loss of employment and occupational licenses. African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system; as a result, these civil penalties aka “collateral consequences” affect their communities more harshly. Prior to the development of C-CAT collateral consequences were scattered throughout the North Carolina General Statutes, making it impossible, for anyone to master the entire body of collateral consequences law without a centralized resource. C-CAT lifts the veil on these invisible punishments, thereby creating more transparency in this important area of the law. For more information about C-CAT and the collateral consequences of criminal convictions see the following article in Lawyer’s Weekly.

Attached file/s:
nclawyersweekly-4.pdf