The Youth Opportunity Clinic (YOC) has long collaborated with community partners to combat the criminalization and subsequent collateral consequences faced by young people. This year, the YOC partnered with and built on the work of national and local organizations, including the Center for HIV Law and Policy (CHLP) and Nashville Cares, which have been working to change the laws criminalizing HIV status in Tennessee. Last year, these groups were able to pass legislation removing the most severe collateral consequences related to crimes tied to HIV-status, which included mandatory registration as a violent sex offender. With the change in law came a new opportunity for people to apply to deregister.
YOC took on an important role in this project once the law was passed, working to help understand this new law, create fact sheets, and conduct targeted outreach to support people in deregistering. In the fall, a team of two students, Drew Pierce (JD ’24) and Grace Su (JD ’24) began this important work to explain the law to the public and to people directly affected. YOC and these students were honored at an event in November held by community partners, called “Changing Laws, Changing Lives.” Grace Su reflects on her experience, “Being a part of the Youth Opportunity Clinic was one of the most meaningful law school experiences I had. One project that stands out was working with CHLP to provide information for people on how to deregister through a letter and fact sheet. It was so special to be able to celebrate CHLP’s work at their celebration event and hear first-hand stories about how this work is crucial in changing people’s lives for the better.”
This work continued into the spring, as two more student teams joined in the work. One team, Betsy Sugar (JD ’24) and Kaseen Smith (JD ’25), took a deeper dive into learning about the deregistration process. Sugar recalled, “The full impact of what could be achieved by getting people off the registry became clear when someone to whom we sent a letter called and told me about the time he was denied being able to see his mother in the hospital because of having a registrable offense. That Tennessee has recognized that this offense should not qualify for the registry but did not automatically remove those already registered is profoundly unjust.”
A third student team, composed of Victoria Schmidt (JD ’24) and Katie Graham (JD ’25), worked on a different angle—directly representing a client in a deregistration petition for someone whose HIV-related conviction was due to her status as a survivor of domestic violence and human trafficking. These students were successful in getting a deregistration order for their client, opening up tremendous future opportunities that had previously been closed. Graham recounted, “It was very fulfilling to support a survivor of trafficking reduce the harm that the legal system had compounded for them, and I’m so glad we were able to help.”
The YOC’s work over two semesters on this issue provided opportunities for students to learn more about the intersections of health, criminalization, and collateral consequences. It also provided opportunities for learning and reflection on the many modes of legal change and opportunities for legal advocacy in supporting vulnerable populations struggling to overcome stigma and the harm of collateral consequences.
