New Bulletin on Social Workers in Public Defender Offices and Issues Involving Mandatory Reporting – North Carolina Criminal Law

More and more, public defender workplaces are bringing social employees in-house. As a part of a rising curiosity in holistic protection, these workplaces are counting on social employees to help with the illustration of their shoppers in a wide range of methods. Social employees can find housing, discover acceptable remedy for substance use dysfunction or psychological sickness, and enhance shopper communication by constructing belief and sensitivity to shoppers’ wants. This work could assist the presentation of mitigation proof at sentencing, and past that, break cycles of involvement with the prison justice system.

North Carolina is within the midst of a significant, legislatively-funded growth of its public defender system. The Faculty’s Prison Justice Innovation Lab is supporting NC Indigent Protection Companies by evaluating the implementation of social work positions in public defender workplaces to study extra concerning the methods the inter-professional collaboration features, how social work positions are structured, and customary advantages and challenges of utilizing social work employees.

Throughout this work, a query has arisen on a number of events: how ought to the inter-professional protection workforce navigate a scenario, equivalent to studying of kid abuse, the place obligatory reporting legal guidelines require notification to the native division of social providers (DSS) or legislation enforcement? Ought to social employees adjust to state statutes and comply with their very own moral code by making a report? Or does the lawyer’s obligation to maintain shopper confidences and supply efficient help of counsel “trump” the social employee’s obligation to report?

Final month, I printed a bulletin addressing this dilemma. The bulletin begins with some foundational ideas: (1) the roles of social employees in public defender workplaces, (2) the fundamentals of obligatory reporting, and (3) the basics of privilege and confidentiality. Subsequent, the bulletin explores the dilemma by analyzing varied moral opinions, lawyer basic opinions, and different sources of authority. Though the dilemma isn’t simply resolved, the bulletin concludes with potential steps defenders can take to handle the dilemma or keep away from it within the first place.

The bulletin will be discovered right here. I might respect any suggestions primarily based in your experiences within the area or in any other case. You may electronic mail me at spiegel@sog.unc.edu or depart feedback beneath.