Public Defender plans to offer ‘Clean Slate’ services at Mission resource hub
Already, Hub staff can help applicants fill out the forms
The Public Defender’s Office toured the Latino Task Force Alabama Hub space on Dec. 2. From left: Ruth Barajas (LTF Director of Resource Hubs), Joanna Hernandez (LTF Re-entry and Violence Committee Co-Chair), Kelly Pretzer (Deputy Public Defender), Carmen Sanchez (Court Alternative Specialist), and Ivan Corado-Vega (LTF Manager). Photo courtesy of Carmen Sanchez.
By ANLAN CHENEY
Published Dec. 3, 2021
The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and Latino Task Force launched a partnership Thursday to more readily help Mission residents access the Office’s Clean Slate program to “clean up” prior criminal records.
The service will be offered once a month at the LTF Essential Services Hub at 701 Alabama Street. Previously, individuals seeking Clean Slate services had to do so through the Public Defender’s Office on-site or online.
The services will be offered alongside other community resources for rent, employment and other help at the Alabama Hub, a model developed by Latino Task Force during the pandemic to fill critical service gaps in the hard-hit Latino community.
By “getting the conversation started in a neutral space … that is familiar to folks,” the hub-facilitated service will help ease initiating a process that can be complicated by the stigma of incarceration and distrust of the legal system, said Ivan Corado-Vega who is working on the issue with the Latino Task Force.
“This is just another example of why we need to have resources centralized, why we need to have city departments and resources come to where the people are at,” he said.
Carmen Sanchez, a court alternative specialist with the Public Defender’s Immigration Defense Unit, works with individuals who have open immigration cases and leads the Clean Slate program. She also saw a unique need to raise awareness and expand the program to immigrant communities.
“Many people don’t know that a single conviction can have a big impact on our immigrant communities,” she added. “We’re saving people from being deported, and through these services also giving them a path towards citizenship“ as well as stopping deportations and separation of families.