Patricia Jones – Founder, Coalition Legal
Waukegan Township Supervisor Emeritus

In 2003, Waukegan Township formed the Coalition to Reduce Recidivism with the help and support of community partners, many of them service providers who saw the need to help individuals re-integrate into society without repeating the mistakes of their past. The call to action came from the Waukegan community itself, where a movement gathered force to help those returning from incarceration gain access to jobs and learn to live self-sufficiently with supportive social services, counseling, housing assistance, job training, and
placement.

One of the services the Coalition to Reduce Recidivism offered was assistance in sealing or expunging criminal records — some of them years or even decades old — that prevented many individuals from getting a good-paying job or a stable apartment simply because of their past mistakes. A few years later, the Township engaged a single volunteer attorney to assist clients with preparing their court petitions, and this was the start of the Coalition Legal Help Desk.

The Legal Help Desk steadily expanded and, in 2019, relaunched as Coalition Legal, a stand-alone legal project with three volunteer attorneys. Following the 2017 Illinois law that expanded the number of records that could be sealed or expunged, attorneys quickly realized that without actual assistance in the courtroom, many of their clients were intimidated by the bureaucratic steps required to achieve their court order and simply gave up — even though they had a right to the order. But with the help of our legal professionals, many deserving applicants who were denied their rights by a process that was just too complex are now able to reclaim those rights and begin a path to jobs, housing, and stability in their lives.

Patricia Jones, founder of the Coalition to Reduce Recidivism, announces the formation of Coalition Legal at the 2019 C2RR Annual Luncheon.

Stephen Miller and Kathryn Vanden Berk celebrate her retirement in 2025. She joined the Legal Help Desk in 2016 and established the legal foundation that we rely on today.

Our mission is to provide greater access to stable employment and housing for people whose past criminal records are holding them back. We provide free legal advice to determine whether a criminal record is eligible to be sealed or expunged, and assist with the court process. Our focused goal is to help our clients utilize the 2017 Illinois law that vastly expanded the records eligible for this procedure, offering individuals a clear, simple path to stable employment and access to housing.