HOLISTIC DEFENSE: WHAT IS IT?
This is Part 1 of a 3 part series as a sneak preview of the program for our Healing Injustice conference on Oct. 28-29! To experience more, conference registration is free and open to the public.
Holistic defense started with an understanding that an accused person’s legal needs extend well beyond their criminal case. A team of lawyers – civil, family, immigration – are envisioned as surrounding the client, centered in their work, to provide wrap-around support. Very quickly, innovators recognized that holistic defense, particularly for people struggling through poverty, should incorporate social services, too, and social workers were utilized. The Bronx Defenders Center for Holistic Defense delineates four pillars of successful holistic defense: 1) seamless access to services that meet clients’ legal and social support needs; 2) dynamic, interdisciplinary communication; 3) advocates with an interdisciplinary skillset; and 4) a robust understanding of, and connection to, the community served.
Despite wide recognition of the need for improved services, many public defenders do not provide holistic defense. The public defender offices that do strive for holistic defense apply it differently. Restoring Justice, here in Houston, provides holistic defense through four focus areas: client-centered legal representation; social services that connect people to life-essential resources; counseling that addresses prior trauma and facilitate spiritual freedom; and volunteer connections to give vital relational support for clients across their journey. Holistic defense requires client service staff to build genuine, trusting relationships to truly understand how to address the specific barriers each client faces and has faced in the past. This requires a vulnerability not taught in law school or social services programs.
Holistic defense is the act of stepping into those gaps to boldly uplift the humanity of each client in legal spaces that often reduce them to their charges, background, economic status, and skin color. Our legal system dehumanizes people who are poor, mentally ill, and racially discriminated, and holistic defense does the hard work of humanizing and restoring them.
Next week, we will share the parts of the program that explains “Why It Matters” and in 2 weeks: “Where are we Headed?”