Scholar of the Month

My chosen field of research, criminal offender re-entry was inspired both by practice as a Legal Aid attorney and by life circumstances.

My research centers on the civil penalties that are triggered by a criminal history and my articles promote challenges to these collateral consequences while attempting to provide a foundation for sound reform.

Inspired both by practice as a Legal Aid attorney and by life circumstances, my research aims to uncover the effects these laws and regulations have not only on the individuals themselves, but on their families and society as a whole. Commonly called “collateral consequences,” these sanctions work to exclude individuals with criminal histories from any meaningful opportunity to participate in society. Regularly disqualified from employment and housing, this group frequently recidivates, costing taxpayers millions.   Moreover, these regulations disproportionately affect poor and minority groups. My articles promote challenges to these collateral consequences while attempting to provide a foundation for sound reform.

My doctrinal research in the field of criminal offender reentry has been extensively circulated and is valued by scholars in the field and by practitioners and advocacy groups nationally. I just finished my most recent project: A trilogy of law review articles concerning the War on Drugs’ impact on the rights and freedoms of felons. Felons & Firearms was the last article in the series. This volume of the Trap Chronicles is the third and final installment in a planned series of works concerning the War on Drugs’ impact on the rights and freedoms of felons. The first volume is Lahny Silva, The Trap Chronicles, Vol. 1: How U.S. Housing Policy Impairs Criminal Justice Reform, 80 MD. L. REV. 565 (2021). The second volume The Trap Chronicles, Vol. 2:  A Call to Reconsider “Risk” in Federal Supervised Release, 82 Maryland L. Rev. 530 (2023).



My field research has made a huge impact on the resident of Marion County. It has literally helped thousands over the past decade. For example, I am just finishing up a major 2-year grant that involves a partnership with Thomas Ridley’s 1 Like Me, IU McKinney School of Law, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, and Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic. The purpose of the grant was to assist people with driver’s license reinstatement and expungement services. The information culled from the experience is helping demonstrate the impact of a driver’s license on the employability of indigent and justice involved folks as well as the effect on recidivism and public safety.

To date we have served 3000+ people. Of those folks, 1800+ people have received driver’s license assistance; over 1000 are either valid or eligible to get their driver’s license. In addition, 1200+ received expungement assistance, with hundreds of petitions (450) granted. The 3,000+ people have a recidivism rate of 6 percent, which is excellent.

I am a solutions-oriented person. I am of the opinion that it is not enough to identify a problem. You must also find a solution. My favorite part about my research is when I experience the moment that I feel understand a problem enough to offer a viable solution.

I like to hit the beach or relax and watch reruns of Columbo.

Students are the lifeblood of the University. I revel in their idealism and delight in their hunger to help people. I engage them in every aspect of my research, from researching law and legal periodicals on a given topic to including them in my law-in-action field research initiatives where they perform services and collect data.

I involve various community members in my research in a variety of ways. In my field research initiatives, I integrate law students and social work students in projects to perform services, of which I am evaluating service effectiveness and impact. I work closely with numerous grassroots organizations including the MLK Center, Brightwood Community Center, Thomas Ridley’s 1 Like Me, Inc., and Edna Martin. Christian Center. Moreover, I collaborate with several federal, state, and local justice agencies in the field including the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, the US Department of Probation, Community Corrections, and IMPD.

I plan on writing an article that seeks to answer two vital questions central to the issue of felons and firearms left open by the Supreme Court in United States v. Rahimi (2024): 1) how has “dangerousness” been used as a justification for gun control and/or firearm dispossession throughout American history and 2) should this be a permissible basis to uphold contemporary gun laws. My project seeks to provide the Court with a full account of the way in which “dangerousness” has been used throughout American history, with a special emphasis on the Second Amendment jurisprudence that evolved since the Founding.