KY Dept. of Public Advocacy

Apply to be the next Directing Attorney in Henderson!

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Apply for DPA's Recruiting Program Supervisor Position

Apply to the 2025 October Career Fest!

Kentucky Court of Justice | Check for Weather Closures at Top of Page

George Sornberger Zoom Recognition Service

Deaf Awareness Month: University of Washington Resource

Deaf Awareness Month: Cursive D

Louisville–Jefferson County Public Defender Corporation Joins the DPA

Curlee Brown | Black History Month Feature

Jane Roberta Summers | Black History Month Feature

Celebrate MLK Day | Louisville

Celebrate MLK Day | Lexington

Celebrate MLK Day | Paducah

Celebrate MLK Day | Hazard

Perception of Latinos' race impacts crime sentences, study finds | Axios

DNA and Wrongful Conviction: Five Facts You Should Know | Innocence Project

Juvenile Detention: How the U.S. Forces Youth into Unsafe Facilities | The Marshall Project

Jacob Wideman’s Parole and the State of ‘Mass Supervision’ | The Marshall Project

KY woman hopes new DNA tests will prove her innocence in murder case. So far, courts won't allow them | Courier Journal

Without the right to adequate counsel, is our criminal justice system legitimate? | The Hill

Prison Policy Initiative: Women's Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2023

ABA: ABA report criticizes fines and fees system in New Mexico’s courts

Prison Policy Initiative: Beyond the Count: A deep dive into state prison populations

Los Angeles City Historical Society: Clara Shortridge Foltz – Barrier Breaker

The Guardian: As crime-solving goes hi-tech, public defenders scramble to keep up

Prison Policy Initiative: Detaining the Poor: How money bail perpetuates an endless cycle of poverty and jail time

NPR: Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in as first Black woman on the Supreme Court

8 African American Attorneys Who Shaped the U.S.

Safety & Justice Challenge: Over-Incarceration of Native Americans: Roots, Inequities, and Solutions

History: Loving v. Virginia

Prison Policy Initiative: All profit, no risk: How the bail industry exploits the legal system

Goodwill Expungement Clinic in E-Town on 2/23/24

ABA: Black History Month 2023: Honoring Trailblazers in the Legal Profession

ASALH: Black History Themes 2023

Slate | The Unique Problems Facing Native American Youths in the Criminal Justice System

NACDL | Native Americans and the Criminal Justice System

Register to Vote

Take the 'Can You Vote?' Quiz

Check Your Voting Status

Innocence Project: Why Latinx People Are Uniquely Vulnerable to Wrongful Conviction

USC Gould School of Law Alumni Profile

Exoneration of Edwin Chandler

For Clients – Department of Public Advocacy

AP News: Researchers: Pretrial detention plans wouldn't reduce crime

NLADA: AT WHAT COST? Findings from an Examination into the Imposition of Public Defense System Fees

Former Public Advocate Ernie Lewis Featured on the Podcast Public Defenseless

KY Center for Investigative Reporting: Phone Calls Still Won’t Be Free When Louisville Jail Gives Up Profit

Prison Policy Initiative: Visualizing the unequal treatment of LGBTQ people in the criminal justice system

PEW: Public Defenders Were Scarce Before COVID. It’s Much Worse Now.

MAP: Unjust: LGBTQ Youth Incarcerated in the Juvenile Justice System

ACLU: COCHRAN V. COMMONWEALTH - KENTUCKY SUPREME COURT RULING

Urban Institute: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, a missing minority in criminal justice data

The National Law Review: 8 Asian American Attorneys Who Shaped the History of the United States

Prison Policy Initiative: New data: Low incomes – but high fees – for people on probation

The Crime Report: 1,849 Lost Years: Exonerees in 2021

The Crime Report: Pretrial Detention Increases Long-Term Risk to Public Safety: Study

The Crime Report: How Crime on Parole Drives Mass Incarceration: Study

Tell the Client’s Story: Mitigation in Criminal and Death Penalty Cases

Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Pummeled the U.S. Legal System. It May Take Years to Catch Up.

KIP Exoneration of Robert Yell

Oral History Interview with Allison Connelly

Origins and Importance of #WomensHistoryMonth

Americans of all colors contributed to civil rights movement

KIP Exoneration of Keith Hardin

KIP Exoneration of Jeff Clark

#BlackHistoryMonth: Benjamin Shobe

WFPL: ‘In Conversation’ explores the legacy of bell hooks, Kentucky native and cultural icon

National Museum of African American History & Culture: Incarcerating a Generation

Founding day of NAACP

Courier-Journal: How COVID showed us bail reform is possible in Kentucky

Courier Journal: LOCKED AWAY: The high cost of Kentucky’s persistent felony offender law

EJI: Race and the jury: illegal discrimination in jury selection

#BlackHistoryMonth Origins & History

The Crime Report: Public Defender Shortages Reaching Critical Levels: Report

Herald Leader: Application of Kentucky’s death penalty shows racial biases, new report says

The Sentencing Project: Youth in Adult Courts, Jails, and Prisons

Vice: Prison Phone Companies Are Recording Attorney-Client Calls Across the US

ABA Journal: Juries without COVID-19-conscious people may be more likely to convict, defense lawyers say

Herald Leader: KY Supreme Court: Low-income people don’t have to pay to remove felony records

The Marshall Project: Banned From Jobs: People Released From Prison Fight Laws That Keep Punishing Them.

Center for American Progress: A Criminal Record Shouldn’t Be a Life Sentence to Poverty

The Sentencing Project: Parents in Prison

Yahoo: What Being Incarcerated Taught One Public Defender About the Criminal Justice System

Center for American Progress: Fines and Fees Are a Barrier to Criminal Record-Clearing

ProPublica: Innocent But Still Guilty

WEVV: Madisonville Job Fair Offering Second Chance For Those Looking For Employment

Herald Leader: Floyd County jail struggles with crowding, garbage, broken lights, sinks and toilets

Mississippi Free Press: I Told Congress That Misdemeanor Fines And Fees Cause Americans To Go Hungry

The Marshall Project: I Was Sentenced to Life as a Juvenile. Now I Help Kids Build Brighter Futures.

The Crime Report: How Philadelphia’s ‘Bail Advocates’ Reduced Pretrial Racial Disparities

The Marshall Project: I Am Not Your ‘Inmate’

Manchester Ink Link: Many NH attorneys leaving public defender program; heavy caseloads cited

Brown Political Review: The Right to an Attorney: An American Myth

KYCIR: Louisville wants free phone calls for incarcerated people

The Crime Report: When Your Criminal Case Is Dropped, But Your Mugshot Lives Forever

WAMC: How America criminalizes Black youth

The Bottom Line: Kentucky Chamber Foundation Partners with Agencies Providing IDs for Kentuckians when Released from Incarceration

The Crime Report: Is It Time to Rethink the ‘American Way of Punishment’?

The Marshall Project: The System: The Truth About Trials

The Appeal: A Homeless Man Has Spent 800 Days At Rikers After Stealing Cold Medicine. Now His Prison Sentence May Be Beginning.

ABA Journal: What is the starting pay for public defenders? Low salaries discourage applicants

The Vanguard: Nadler and Sanchez Re-Introduce U.S. Legislation to Remove Excessive Fines and Fees

U.S. News: ACLU Sues Kentucky Corrections Department Over Inmate Mail

Brennan Center for Justice: Addressing Violent Crime More Effectively

ABA: Compassion Fatigue

The Hill: How to reduce recidivism and the labor shortage in one fell swoop.

NPR: COVID precautions put more prisoners in isolation. It can mean long-term health woes.

ABA: The legal profession must face its pervasive issue of mental health.

Governor Beshear honors John Rosenberg, Vice-Chair of the KY Public Advocacy Commission

WLKY: 'It's like a nightmare': Former inmate describes 'horrible' conditions inside Metro Corrections

KY Center for Investigative Reporting: At Shelby County Jail, Quarantine Means Missing Your Own Court Hearings

Goodwill Expungement Clinics

The Times Leader: Public defender’s office keeping busy during pandemic

The Crime Report: Expungement Crisis: The Long Wait to Restore ‘Ruined Lives’

KY Center for Investigative Reporting: Phone Calls Still Won’t Be Free When Louisville Jail Gives Up Profit

Goodwill Expungement Clinics

The Crime Report: Prisons Fail to Address Needs of Pregnant Incarcerees: Report

BuzzFeed News: Formerly Incarcerated People Shared What It's Like To Readjust To Society After Prison

The Marshall Project: The Hidden Cost of Incarceration

CBS News: Going against FDA warnings, Arkansas physician gives anti-parasite drug to jail inmates with COVID-19

Where Lots of Police Shootings Draw Little Scrutiny

White woman who stole $250K gets probation, while Black woman who stole $40K goes to jail. Disparate sentences spark calls for reform

KY Center for Investigative Reporting: Kentucky Jails Made $9.6 Million Off Jail Communication In FY2020

The Marshall Project: These Meds Prevent Overdoses. Few Federal Prisoners Are Getting Them

Prison Policy Initiative: Kentucky Profile

The Crime Report: ‘Second Chance’ Pell Grants Program Expands to 200 Schools in 2022

Elizabethtown Staff Attorney Position - Closes 8/21/21

WTVQ: Fayette jail suspends in-person visitation, masks required for others

Herald Leader: New order urges mask wearing in Kentucky judicial buildings

The Marshall Project: Broken Language

The Crime Report: Permanent Housing Disrupts Denver’s ‘Homeless-to-Jail Pipeline’

Damon Preston's 8/4/21 Presentation on Increasing Public Defender Resignations Due to Low Funding for Salaries (at the Budget Review Subcommittee on Justice & Judiciary)

Courier Journal: Appeals court says Kentucky prisons can deny life-saving medicine because it's expensive

The Sentencing Project: Black Disparities in Youth Incarceration

The Crime Report: Prisoners Freed During COVID are ‘Twisting in the Wind,’ say Reformers

NPR: As The Nation's Courthouses Reopen, They Face Massive Backlogs In Criminal Cases

Damon Preston Reappointed Public Advocate

Staff Attorney Position in our Danville Trial Office - Closes 7/27/21

The Marshall Project: A Half-Million People Got COVID-19 in Prison. Are Officials Ready for the Next Pandemic?

The Sentencing Project: A New Lease on Life

The Crime Report: The Trauma of Solitary: A Voice From the ‘Madhouse’

Brennan Center for Justice: Probation and Parole as Punishment

The Crime Report: Criminal Records on the News Have Long-Term Economic Effects

The Marshall Project: 31,000 Prisoners Sought Compassionate Release During COVID-19. The Bureau of Prisons Approved 36.

Courier-Journal: New parole board chair drops policy giving new shot at release in dozens of notorious cases

Public Advocate Appoints Jennifer Wittmeyer as Conflict Region Manager

AP: Kentucky’s second-largest city bans ‘no-knock’ warrants

Prison Policy Initiative: Proposed slowdown of the mail would disproportionally hit incarcerated mailers

The Marshall Project: Jail Populations Creep Back Up After COVID-19

USA Today: Connecticut becomes first state to make all prison phone calls free

Courier Journal: Millions with felonies can now vote, including thousands in Kentucky. Most don’t know it.

Messenger-Inquirer: Should pandemic-emptied jails stay that way?

The Crime Report: ‘Sense of Urgency’ in Decarceration Lost as Nation Emerges From Pandemic

The Crime Report: ‘Algorithmic Bias’: The Next Challenge for Justice Reform

Juneteenth Celebrations - Somerset

Juneteenth Celebrations - Louisville

Juneteenth Celebrations - Lexington & Jessamine County

Juneteenth Celebrations - Owensboro

Juneteenth Celebrations - Frankfort

Juneteenth Celebrations - Danville & Harrodsburg

Job Posting for Elizabethtown Staff Attorney Supervisor

The Marshall Project: 31,000 Prisoners Sought Compassionate Release During COVID-19. The Bureau of Prisons Approved 36.

NACJ: Justice Index 2021

Search for open KY Public Defender jobs!

UChicago News: UChicago alumni turn class project into tool for public defenders

Legal Examiner: Access to Legal Services May Improve Under Biden

Daily Herald: Illinois House unanimously passes ban on deceptive interrogation of juveniles

Spectrum News 1: Attorney General Daniel Cameron convenes task force on search warrants

The Crime Report: When Forensic Evidence Convicts the Innocent

WFPL: How Many Coronavirus Cases In Ky. Jails? We Don’t Know, And State Won’t Say

The Marshall Project: Good Intentions Don’t Blunt the Impact of Dehumanizing Words

NPR: All Federal Inmates To Be Offered Vaccine By Mid-May, BOP Director Says

The Crime Report: Can Artificial Intelligence Give Us Equal Justice?

Sentencing Project: No End In Sight: America’s Enduring Reliance on Life Imprisonment

The Marshall Project: These Parents Had to Bond With Their Babies Over Zoom — or Lose Them Forever

The Crime Report: Youth Justice System Worsened During Pandemic

The Marshall Project: What 120 Executions Tell Us About Criminal Justice in America

The Marshall Project: As States Expand Vaccine Eligibility, Many People in Prison Still Wait for Shots

Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting: Kentucky’s Prison Coronavirus Defense Is Failing

NPR: When It Comes To Email, Some Prisoners Say Attorney-Client Privilege Has Been Erased

Vox: How an unpaid bill can lead to prison

NBC: Former prisoners struggle to re-enter society. What happens when society moves online?

Virginia Mercury: Before lawmakers abolished the death penalty, expert public defenders had quietly defeated it themselves

NYT: Virginia Becomes First Southern State to Abolish the Death Penalty

Brennan Center for Justice: Washington State Senate Passes Bill to Restore Voting Rights to People on Probation and Parole

The Marshall Project: Many Juvenile Jails Are Now Almost Entirely Filled With Young People of Color

WDRB: First inmates at Metro Corrections receive their COVID-19 vaccine

The Marshall Project: How Prisons in Each State Are Restricting Visits Due to Coronavirus

Women’s History Month: Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The Sentencing Project: State-by-State Data (Imprisonment Rate)

NACDL: The State of Prison & Jail Communication Systems

The Marshall Project: We Asked People Behind Bars How They Feel About Getting Vaccinated

WPSD: More than 200 inmates positive for COVID-19 in Western Kentucky Correctional Complex

WTVQ: Push to increase felony theft threshold: A step for criminal justice reform in KY

Black History Month: Carl Brashear

The Advocate: More than 1 in 10 Louisiana prisoners are serving life without parole, highest rate in the U.S.

KFVS News: Kentucky Courts Begin to Ease COVID-19 Restrictions

Black History Month: Willa Brown Chappell

Messenger-Inquirer: Pandemic Continues to Impact Movement of Court Cases

NYT: Nearly 20 Million Americans Have a Felony Record. What Happens After They’ve Served Their Time?

Opinion: I’m A Public Defender. My Clients Keep Getting COVID-19 While Incarcerated.

Black History Month: Murray Atkins Walls

SF Chronicle: The Adachi Project to Honor Late S.F. Public Defender with Films about Justice

Black History Month: Gerald A. Neal

KyPolicy: SB 36 Would Protect Children from Automatically Being Tried as Adults

NPR: Listen to 6 Stunning Moments from Loving v. Virginia

The Sentencing Project: Racial Disparities in Youth Incarceration Persist

Black History Month: Frank X Walker

The Appeal: Rising Jail Populations Require Quick Responses

Black History Month: Georgia Davis Powers

Afro Tech: This Black Teen Developed an App to Help Incarcerated Parents Stay Connected to Their Kids

NBC News: A Kentucky deputy went to Trump's D.C. rally. Now he's under investigation at home.

Black History Month: Whitney Young

Urban Institute's Report on Assessing Juvenile Diversion Reforms in Kentucky

The Marshall Project: Help Us Report On COVID-19 Vaccinations Behind Bars

CNN: Meet the man who created Black History Month

KY Center for Economic Policy: New Data Helps Pave the Way for Bail Reform in Kentucky

The Crime Report: Public Defenders Suffer From the ‘Stress of Injustice’

Marshall Project: This Scientist Helped Free the Innocent Using DNA. Now Biden Wants Him in the Cabinet.

PBS: Leaving prison without a government ID can block access to housing, jobs and help

Politico: How Thousands of American Laws Keep People ‘Imprisoned’ Long After They’re Released

The Marshall Project: A $6,300 Bus. A $33 Last Meal. What New Documents Tell Us About Trump’s Execution Spree

The Hill: Biden team asks Senate Democrats to recommend public defenders, civil rights lawyers for federal bench

Courier Journal: AG Cameron launches search warrant task force promised after Breonna Taylor's death

Justice Sotomayor Slams US Government After 13th Inmate Execution Since July 2021

Our Public Advocate, Damon Preston, will be presenting on the panel for the 2021 KY Policy Conference this Friday! Register here.