Interview with Chaz Arnett
Chaz Arnett, Public Interest Lawyer:
An Emerging Force in the Criminal Justice Movement, the New Civil Rights Movement Chaz Arnett joined the Juvenile Court Division of Maryland’s Office of the Public Defender in 2012. At OPD, he represents juveniles in Baltimore City in a wide range of delinquency matters and works on a number of boards and committees, such as the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Stakeholders Board, Pre-Adjudication Coordination and Training Team, and the Disproportionate Minority Contact Advisory Committee, to push for system-wide changes for the betterment of youth.
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haz is a Baltimore City native and has been very passionate about criminal justice issues since he was young; having seen firsthand the negative effects of the system growing up in his East Baltimore neighborhood. He used those experiences as a driving force to become an agent for criminal and juvenile justice reform. Chaz graduated from Morehouse College in 2003 with a degree in sociology and criminal justice. He earned his Juris Doctorate degree from Harvard Law School in 2006. While at Harvard, he represented indigent clients in criminal cases at Roxbury District Court in Boston, Massachusetts as a student attorney with the Criminal Justice Institute.
Inspired by trips to New Orleans to assist in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, after law school Chaz moved to Louisiana and worked as a trial attorney with Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans; where he represented clients in felony trial proceedings and helped in the rebuilding of tenacious advocacy and defense in the office.
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In 2009, he accepted the Satter Legal Research Fellowship from Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program. Chaz’s host organization for the fellowship was the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), in Cape Town, South Africa. During the fellowship year, he worked with ICTJ’s Zimbabwe Unit and spent time
Annual 2013 Edition
in both South Africa and Zimbabwe, advocating for the rights of detained Zimbabwean refugees and assisting in the constitutional development and redrafting process. Upon his return to the U.S. in 2011, Chaz worked in Washington, D.C. at Advancement Project as a staff attorney in the “Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track” program. His work focused on assisting and promoting a national campaign to end harsh and unfair school disciplinary measures that push children off of an academic track and on to a track to prison. Chaz, assured that the criminal justice movement is the new civil rights movement, has dedicated his career to fighting for the protection of constitutional rights and for the elevation of basic human rights within our criminal justice system. He longs for the day when the criminal justice system will reflect the principles and values this country holds most dear, but until that day, he remains committed to this important work for the long haul.
Why did you decide to go to law school? I decided during the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college that I wanted to go to law school. Funny enough, I was an engineering major at the time, with the aim of pursuing computer engineering; much to the delight of my mother and grandfather. I was very good at math in high school and had