Policy Work

Decoding Alternative Education

Monday, March 20, 2023 |

The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) is proud to have co-authored Decoding Alternative Education: Student Demographics, Coursework and Budgeting in the Five Largest California County Offices of Education & Tools for Transparency with the ACLU of Southern California and the National Center for Youth Law. Authors found a lack of publicly available information regarding the […]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: EBCLC PREVENTS PANDEMIC FORECLOSURES WITH AB 2463

Tuesday, September 29, 2020 | ,

On Monday, September 28, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 2463 (Wicks), effectively stopping the unjust practice of forcing the sale of family homes over small, unsecured debts. East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) celebrates the passage of this long-overdue legislation, which will prevent a statewide foreclosure crisis by expanding consumer protections for all Californians.

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California Is Considering Ending Criminal Court Fees and Wiping Out Billions in Debt

Monday, June 17, 2019 | ,

Three years ago, during Brandon Greene’s first week working as a lawyer in a new clinic affiliated with the East Bay Community Law Center, he was handed a stack of cases to review. Each involved a client who was struggling to pay down the fines and fees that easily accumulate in California’s criminal justice system. It was his job to help. A handful of the cases were so old that he couldn’t find current contact information for the clients. He quickly realized that “some of those folks,” even if he did reach them, “could not get back on their feet at all”  because of their debt. “The folks who were being affected were mostly indigent,” he said. “Everything costs money. Every program costs money. And a lot of folks can’t afford to pay these things.”

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I Served My Prison Time. Why Do I Still Have to Pay?

Tuesday, April 30, 2019 | ,

Theresa Zhen, a staff attorney at the East Bay Community Law Center in Berkeley, who is helping coordinate the advocacy effort for SB144, is already declaring victory. “The fact that even the opposition to the bill admits that it’s philosophically right is huge,” she said. “We’re finally having the real conversation: that courts have been built on the backs of the poor.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Today, Senate Bill 144, introduced by Senator Holly J. Mitchell, was amended with text that will end the assessment and collection of administrative fees imposed against people in the criminal justice system

Thursday, March 28, 2019 | ,

By doing so, it would dramatically reduce the economic hardships caused by court-ordered debt and enhance the economic security of system-involved populations, their families and their communities. SB 144 will usher in an era of criminal justice policy that does not rely on stripping wealth from communities of color and low-income communities.

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