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Punishment After the Sentence: Collateral Consequences and the Struggle for Second Chances
Wednesday October 21, 2026 3:15pm - 4:45pm EDT
Cincinnati Convention Center
The sentence ends. The punishment doesn't. A person completes probation, pays fines, serves time — and then discovers that the conviction follows them into every corner of their civil life. They can't pass a background check for employment. Professional licenses are out of reach. They're denied housing because a landlord's screening algorithm flags a years-old misdemeanor. Public benefits may be restricted. Voting rights may be gone. Custody proceedings are colored by a record that was supposed to be "paid for." For millions of Americans, a criminal record creates a permanent architecture of civil barriers that makes stability nearly impossible — long after the formal sentence has been served. 
This session maps that architecture and the Ohio legal tools available to dismantle it. A team of attorneys from the Ohio Justice & Policy Center presents the landscape of collateral consequences with a case example: what actually happens when someone with a criminal record tries to get a job, obtain a professional license, find housing, or otherwise participate in society. Then they walk through Ohio’s legal remedies — expungement, record sealing, certificates of qualification for employment, certificates of qualification for housing, Ohio’s Governor’s Expedited Pardon Project, and safe harbor expungement for survivors of human trafficking — showing how each works in practice, who qualifies, what the process looks like, and where the gaps are. The presentation is honest about limitations: record-clearing laws vary dramatically by state, many convictions remain ineligible, and even sealed records can resurface in unexpected ways. 
Participants will work through a hypothetical case that makes the scope of the problem concrete. Each table reviews the case example with a criminal history and identifies collateral consequences and maps the remedies available in Ohio. The exercise reveals uncomfortable asymmetries: barriers that exist everywhere but remedies that exist in only certain jurisdictions. A real-time audience poll surfaces what record-clearing tools each participant's jurisdiction offers and where the biggest gaps are. You'll leave with a better understanding of collateral consequences, Ohio record-clearing resources, and advocacy efforts for expanding second-chance pathways in your jurisdiction.

Speakers
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Lindsay Baruffa

Ohio Justice & Policy Center
Lindsay Baruffa is a senior attorney and Director of the Second Chance Project at the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, where she works to remove barriers to education, employment, and housing for people with criminal records. Before joining OJPC, she was an attorney at the Hamilton County... Read More →
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Ashley Ward

Ohio Justice & Policy Center
Ashley Ward is a staff attorney with the Ohio Justice & Policy Center’s Second Chance Project, which she joined in September 2023. She provides legal service services, policy advocacy, outreach, and education with a focus on housing law, working to remove housing barriers for Ohioans... Read More →
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Devin Perry

Ohio Justice & Policy Center
Devin Perry is a staff attorney with the Second Chance Project at the Ohio Justice & Policy Center. She provides legal services, outreach, and education, focused on human trafficking survivors, with particular emphasis on post-conviction relief, survivor advocacy, and Safe Harbor... Read More →
Wednesday October 21, 2026 3:15pm - 4:45pm EDT
Cincinnati Convention Center 537 Elm St, Cincinnati, OH 45202
  Court Admin

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