20170126-173824-31

Since 2015, NLADA has played a supporting role for the BJA-funded Right to Counsel (R2C) National Campaign, and to the Campaign’s grantee, American University (AU). The Right to Counsel Campaign seeks to educate and engage those outside the defender community - policymakers, criminal justice stakeholders, and the public - on the importance of meaningfully carrying out the Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel.

NLADA will continue to contribute strategic planning and program development to the R2C project. It will provide input into the content and guest lists for the Right to Counsel convenings slated for 2016 and 2017. It will also convene and facilitate two stakeholder roundtables on the topic of the right to counsel. One roundtable group will be held with county executives, in conjunction with the National Association of Counties. The other will be held with court administrators, in conjunction with the National Association for Court Management. Finally, with guidance from the R2C Communications Steering Committee, NLADA will work to develop a toolkit for messaging the right to counsel, utilizing results from the opinion polling, focus groups and roundtables being conducted for the R2C National Campaign.

NLADA worked with AU and other stakeholders to prepare for the Second Annual Right to Counsel Meeting, which was held on October 26, 2016. In conjunction with the Right to Counsel campaign, NLADA completed the following tasks from October 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016:

• Hosted planning meetings with key stakeholders to prepare agenda and details for Second Annual Right to Counsel Meeting
• Recruited participants to attend Second Annual Right to Counsel convening
• Organized break out groups for the Second Annual Right to Counsel meeting convening
• Assisted in developing policy recommendations for Second Annual Right to Counsel meeting
• Convened pre-event teleconference for Second Annual Right to Counsel facilitators (10/21/16)
• Assisted on-site with Second Annual Right to Counsel Convening and facilitated break out session programming (10/26/16)
• Participated in de-brief meeting on Second Annual Right to Counsel Meeting (11/15/16)
• Organized and Convened Meeting at White House on Right to Counsel (11/29/16)

During this period, NLADA contributed to planning and program development for BJA’s Right to Counsel National Campaign by coordinating ongoing engagement of working groups between annual meetings; planning a series of roundtable discussions with various criminal justice stakeholders; and contributing to initial planning of this year’s annual meeting.
NLADA has been involved in the planning of the Campaign since 2015. For the 2016 meeting at the U.S. Department of Justice, NLADA was responsible for coordinating breakout sessions of participants to discuss policy recommendations and next steps for them to take back to their respective roles and jurisdictions. During this reporting period, NLADA worked with other Campaign partners (the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the American University Justice Programs Office) to coordinate follow up with these working groups on a quarterly basis. Members of the working groups share updates about their efforts to uphold the right to counsel on quarterly webinars.
Another component of the Campaign is a series of roundtable discussions (or informal focus groups) with representatives of criminal justice stakeholder groups to learn more about their experience of public defense and their sense of their role in securing the right to counsel. As part of its expanded technical assistance work, NLADA is planning these discussions with other Campaign partners and will host two of the events. During this grant period, NLADA participated in bi-weekly planning meetings at the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) to determine the overall structure and purpose of the roundtables; select facilitators; create a moderator’s guide; and coordinate contracting and other administrative tasks between Campaign partners. The group decided to continue to engage Belden Russonello Strategists (BRS) as facilitators and to update a moderator’s guide they had created for the Campaign in 2016. BRS will also work with NLADA (and other partners) to develop a messaging toolkit that will report the findings of all of the roundtable discussions; the group has now developed an overall vision for this report. In addition, NLADA worked with national organizations – the National Association for Court Management and the National Association of Counties – to plan event details and invite their members to participate. NLADA also committed significant time to seeking cost approval from OJP for these events.
Finally, during this grant period, NLADA began conversations with BJA and with Smart Defense sites about the 2017 Right to Counsel National Campaign Meeting. The Smart Defense sites may be invited to and highlighted at this year’s meeting.

During this period, NLADA continued our work in supporting American University in the planning and program development for BJA’s Right to Counsel National Convening, which was held on November 2, 2017. NLADA participated in working groups between annual meetings to plan the agenda and select panelists and attendees.
This year, NLADA was responsible for organizing the panel discussions with prosecutors and state administering agencies. Both panel discussions were well received at the annual convening.
Another component of the Campaign is a series of roundtable discussions (or informal focus groups) with representatives of criminal justice stakeholder groups to learn more about their experience of public defense and their sense of their role in securing the right to counsel. Two roundtables were held in December 2017, and the final one will be held in March 2018 concluding a series of six roundtables with key stakeholder groups.
On December 12, 2017, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers hosted a right to counsel roundtable with prosecutors from around the country. The event took place at the Department of Justice- Office of Justice Programs, and it was a very successful event which will shape our work moving forward. On December 13, 2017, American University held a listening session (similar to a roundtable) with state administering agencies on the topic of indigent defense. NLADA participated remotely in the Dec. 13th event, which was held in South Carolina. The final roundtable will be held in partnership with National Association County Officials during their legislative conference on Friday, March 2nd in Washington, D.C.
NLADA (and other partners) are now focused on developing a messaging toolkit that will report the findings of all of the roundtable discussions; the group has developed an overall vision for this report. The messaging toolkit will be an online resource, and we have secured a graphic and online designer for the project.

NLADA hosted the last of six roundtable discussions with county officials on April 18, 2018 through an online meeting. It was previously scheduled for March 2, 2018 in Washington, D.C., but this meeting was cancelled due to federal government closure. We held a virtual meeting with this group in order to expedite this meeting and avoid scheduling conflicts for in person meetings.

The online meeting was 90 minutes in length and included six county officials from various jurisdictions from across the U.S. The meeting was facilitated by Belden Russonello group, which facilitated the other roundtables. The goals of the roundtables are as follows:
• Educate about the importance of the right to counsel in general and as it relates to each stakeholder group
• Receive feedback from stakeholders about messages
• Assess their understanding of their role in ensuring the right to counsel
• Identify challenges they face in upholding the right to counsel
• Discuss how to overcome those challenges
• Identify what they can do to ensure the right to counsel moving forward

During this reporting period, NLADA made substantial progress in developing outcome publications for the Right to Counsel Campaign. These documents include the report from roundtable discussions with stakeholder groups, as well as the online right to counsel messaging toolkit. In coordination with the American University Justice Programs Office team, we brought these resources to the final editing phase, with publication expected in early 2019.