Legal Action Center

The Legal Action Center is a nonprofit law and policy organization whose stated mission is to combat discrimination against individuals with a history of addiction, HIV/AIDS, or criminal records. The Legal Action Center helps individuals reclaim their lives, and it also advocates for reasonable public policies on issues related to addiction, AIDS, and/or criminal histories.

In 1973, the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City established the Legal Action Center to fight issues arising from the overlap of addiction and crime, particularly by assisting those most directly impacted. During the middle of the 1980s, AIDS was added to the mission of the Legal Action Center as it became evident that persons with alcohol and other drug problems and/or those with criminal records were at an increased risk for HIV/AIDS. The Legal Action Center is dedicated to fighting the prejudice and stigma that frequently keeps people with personal histories of addiction, crime, and/or HIV/AIDS from fully participating in mainstream society. Beginning with several class action suits and other cases in the 1970s and 1980s, the Legal Action Center has successfully challenged discrimination in granting government benefits, employment, and other areas with precedent setting litigation. For example, the Legal Action Center was instrumental in ensuring that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act specifically forbid discrimination against those in recovery from alcohol and other drug use. One high profile case that the Legal Action Center litigated was Traynor v. Turnage, which they took successfully all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and eventually got Congress to overturn the Veterans Administration ruling that classified alcoholism as willful misconduct instead of as a disease.

The Legal Action Center provides legal services to help fight discrimination, to protect privacy, and to assist with a wide range of legal issues. This legal assistance is provided nationally to help individuals in treatment, or otherwise in recovery, to deal with discriminations or privacy violations. Legal services are also available to individuals and agencies that assist individuals with criminal records or with HIV/AIDS. Assistance is intended to help eliminate legal barriers that could prevent people from gaining employment, housing, zoning, and other basic necessities. In addition to legal assistance, the Legal Action Center conducts many other programs and services.

The Legal Action Center engages in policy advocacy for the expansion of alcohol, drug, and HIV/ AIDS treatment, prevention, and research. It also advocates for social welfare reform policies that will promote sobriety, increase employment, and reduce discrimination. The Legal Action Center conducts public policy research through the Arthur Liman Policy Research Institute in areas related to addiction, AIDS, and criminal justice.

The Legal Action Center is committed to helping bring about a fairer and more effective criminal justice system and strives to uphold the rights of those individuals with criminal justice records who seek to reenter society and to live crime free lives, as well as for those already rehabilitated. The Legal Action Center advocates for reform of sentencing laws and campaigns for greater funding of alternatives to [Page 510]incarceration and for community corrections. Attention is also paid to removing the potentially debilitating legal barriers that make it so difficult for individuals with criminal justice records to be successful in many important areas of life, not the least of which is employment and housing.

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