Displaying items by tag: Access to Justice

Aditi Shah, a 2021-2022 Borchard Fellow in Law and Aging hosted by the ACLU National Prison Project, has written another blog post on access to legal counsel issues faced  by ICE detainees. In her posting, she addresses the impact of denial of counsel on older adults in immigration detention. She notes: 

The barriers to access to counsel in ICE detention facilities disproportionately affect vulnerable groups. Older adults (age 55+) in immigration detention are especially vulnerable to abuse and are more likely to have serious medical needs, and as a result, would especially benefit from legal advocacy. For example, in the past two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults in immigration detention have been among the most likely individuals for whom immigration detention was especially dangerous, and potentially a death sentence. Nineteen of the 41 people (approximately 46 percent) who have died in ICE custody since fiscal year 2018 were over the age of 50, a stark reminder of the vulnerability of older adults in detention.

Aditi Shah, a 2021-2022 Borchard Fellow working with the ACLU National Prison Project on issues concerning older immigrant detainees, was one of the authors of the recently published research report on barriers to access to counsel in ICE detention facilities. The report is available here: 

https://www.aclu.org/report/no-fighting-chance?redirect=nofightingchance.

Aditi was interviewed in a USA Today article covering the report, found here: 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/06/09/legal-rights-migrants-ice-detention-limited-tech-woes/7538769001/. 

Mary Jane Ciccarello, the director of the Borchard Center on Law and Aging, has published an article in the Winter 2019-20, Volume 43, Number 4 issue of Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging. The special issue on Older Adults and Access to Justice was guest edited by Charles Sabatino who directs the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging. Mary Jane's article, "The Self-Help Center of the Utah State Courts: An Essential Component of Access to Justice" is included in the issue's section on models that support better access to justice.