"Where a white legal professional might see stats, I see people. Because, after all, the systemic issues that affect my clients have also affected me."
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A 22-year old man with mental health issues and a complicated family background was repeating a pattern of getting into conflict with his mom. They loved each other enormously, but living together seemed to cause volatile situations, and each would end with his mom calling the police and either a subsequent arrest or involuntary psychiatric hospitalization.
As both our client and his mom identified the living situation as the problem, his PFJ Advocate began trying to find a housing program for which he’d be eligible, to stop the cycle of arrests. As they got to know each other and built rapport, our client started sharing his childhood traumas. With his candor and medical records obtained by the Advocate, they were able to secure an ACT (Assertive Community Team) as a mental health plan. Our client had also been unable to complete his education due to his unaddressed mental health issues and adverse childhood experiences, so our Advocate enrolled in an adult learning class to help him feel empowered in his own abilities and demonstrate to the court how much potential the client had. Between the records, the team, and the educational continuity, our PFJ Advocate was able to not only break the cycle of re-arrest, but distill all they had learned into a letter to his judge asking to have his charges reduced or dismissed.
