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Fall 2024

Fall 2024 Policy Advocacy Clinic cohort

Dear friends,


In 2024, PAC staff and students continued to support state and local partners in campaigns to end regressive and racist laws and practices in the juvenile and criminal legal systems.


In California, the clinic represented Debt Free Justice California in a successful campaign to enact pathbreaking reform to a broken restitution system. The clinic also co-authored a new report on how bail reform continues to fall short in the state.


Nationally, our Debt Free Justice campaign continued to make progress toward our goal of repealing juvenile fees and fines across the country, including hosting a convening of advocates and impacted youth in Berkeley last month, passing reform in Washington that relieved thousands of youth and families of $43 million in outstanding debt, and passing a data resolution as a precursor to repealing juvenile fees and fines in Hawaii.


In invited essays in the Wisconsin Law Review, three PACulty members wrote about our work in relation to what scholar Bernadette Atuahene calls “stategraft,” or the practice of public officials raising revenue off the backs of people who are poorly positioned to fight back.


Finally, in staff news, Co-Director Stephanie Campos-Bui received another prestigious campus award, and we welcomed two new Clinical Supervisors to the PAC family. We also said goodbye to Clinical Supervisor Rachel Wallace, but we are thrilled she is still nearby.


Please read more about these exciting developments below. And on behalf of the PACulty, we wish you wonderful holidays and a happy and healthy new year.


Warmly,


Devan, Jeff & Stephanie

Clinic News

California passes the REPAIR Act in a first of its kind restitution reform

After many decades of restitution laws and policies that do not meet the needs of crime survivors and create a harmful cycle of debt for those who are ordered to pay, PAC helped lead the successful effort to pass California’s REPAIR Act. Assembly Bill 1186 repeals youth restitution fines, waives uncollectable youth and adult restitution fine debt that is over 10 years old, eliminates wage and trust garnishment for youth, and ends joint and several liability for youth. 

PAC publishes new report with UCLA on implementation of In re Humphrey

In 2022, PAC and the UCLA Law Bail Practicum published “Coming Up Short” detailing how state courts were failing to implement the California Supreme Court ruling in In re Humphrey, which held that imposing bail amounts people cannot afford to pay is unconstitutional. In 2024, with the UCLA Pretrial Justice Clinic, PAC released an updated study “Largely Unchanged,” finding that pretrial detention remains stubbornly high in spite of the promise of In re Humphrey.

Debt-Free Justice news

In October 2024, PAC hosted the third national Debt Free Justice convening with Juvenile Law Center and the National Center for Youth Law. More than 50 advocates working to eliminate juvenile fees and fines from across the country, including many impacted youth, spent two days at Berkeley Law celebrating campaign wins, strengthened state partnerships, and strategizing for future policy advocacy.


In state news, after passing bills in 2022 and 2023 to repeal all fees and fines in juvenile court proceedings, Washington enacted Senate Bill 5974 in 2024, which discharged $43 million in outstanding debt in 143,000 juvenile cases. The Hawaii legislature also passed an important juvenile fee and fine data collection bill as a precursor to reform in 2025.

PAC at the Hawai‘i Capitol with state Senator Maile Shimabukuro (L:R – Stephanie Spear, JD ‘24; Maile Shimabukuro, State Senator; Cam Clark, CSA; Ava Kargosha, MPP ’24)

PAC at the Hawai‘i Supreme Court with Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna (L:R – Ava Kargosha, MPP ’24; Cam Clark, CSA; Sabrina McKenna, Associate Justice, HI Supreme Court; Stephanie Spear, JD ’24)

PACulty members publish three articles on “stategraft” (state wealth extraction)

Scholar Bernadette Atuahene coined the term “stategraft” to describe the practice of public officials raising revenue illicitly from people who are poorly positioned to fight back, and three PACulty members published invited essays in the 2024 online Wisconsin Law Review about our work in the context of this phenomenon:

Stephanie Campos-Bui honored with another campus award

Fresh off receiving the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Award for Community-Engaged Teaching in 2022, PAC Co-Director Stephanie Campos-Bui ’14 was awarded the 2024 Thomas I. Yamashita Prize by the UC Berkeley Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, which honors an emerging social change activist/scholar in California who bridges the academy and the community to transform the existing social landscape. Congratulations Stephanie!

PAC welcomes two new Clinical Supervisors and says goodbye to Rachel Wallace

Asher Waite-Jones (Berkeley Law ’16) joined PAC in July 2024 after eight years as a legal aid attorney in California and Indiana, where he provided direct representation to youth and adults in cases contesting the consequences of racialized mass incarceration, including criminalization of homelessness, fines and fees, drivers-license revocations, and vehicle tows.

TJ Grayson (Yale Law ’21) joined PAC in September 2024 after serving as a Justice Catalyst Fellow at the Advancement Project, where he supported abolitionist campaigns to end police violence, and most recently as a Civil Rights Fellow at the Social Justice Legal Foundation, where he engaged in litigation, including Section 1983 cases against law enforcement and a class action against a private ICE detention facility.

PAC also said farewell to Clinical Supervisor Rachel Wallace over the summer, though we’re thrilled that she has not gone far. Rachel started this fall as a PhD student in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at Berkeley Law, and she will begin pursuing her JD from Stanford Law School in Fall 2026.

Thank you, Rachel, for everything you contributed and continue to give to our community!

Clinical Program releases 2023-2024 annual report

Last year, 225 students enrolled in Berkeley Law Clinical Program's 14 clinics, collaborating with faculty, staff, and clients to advance justice in the East Bay, nationally, and globally. Please take a look at the Clinical Program’s annual report to learn more.

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