Parolee advocate and social worker recognized by American Bar Association
Cazenovian Jean Shirley, a social worker and advocate for parolees and the incarcerated, has been recognized with the 2018 American Bar Association’s Liberty Bell Award, the most prestigious honor bestowed to a non-lawyer whose contributions to the community serve to strengthen the American system of freedom and justice under the law.
Shirley is a Hiscock Legal Aid Society client advocate who has worked at the public service agency for 45 years in a variety of capacities. A longtime employee who relies on the relationships she’s forged and the resources she’s cultivated along the way is valuable to any business, but her on-the-job effectiveness has set Shirley apart.
For 30 years, Shirley worked in the HLAS City Court Criminal Defenders Program continuing in 2004 with the agency’s Family Court Program. Her life’s work has been dedicated to promoting liberty, justice and equality for all — especially those who are most vulnerable.
According to Craig Schlanger, supervising attorney of the HLAS Parole Program, Shirley screens clients who have violated parole supervision conditions and works with area rehabilitation and treatment facilities to find effective alternatives to incarceration.
“Thanks to the excellent rapport that she has with our clients and their families, her thorough knowledge of the available programs, her outstanding working relationship with treatment providers, her diligence and her extraordinary commitment to the mission of our program, we are able to achieve justice for our clients,” Schlanger said.
Among the HLAS programs she has initiated is the Visit Host Program. This initiative allows for monitored visits of foster children and their parents at community locations different than the typical agency waiting room setting.
By providing clients with the interpersonal skills needed to take responsibility and feel empowered to address family, substance abuse or mental health issues, Shirley “stimulates a deeper sense of individual responsibility, so that folks understand their rights and their duties. Jean manages to do this in a non-threatening and disarming manner, creating trusting and lasting relationships that lead to personal growth,” said her one of her nominators, Linda Gehron, Esq. (HLAS CEO). “I have seen Jean’s presence sustain our clients through very difficult and emotional litigation, making it possible for them to succeed.”
Additionally, for the last 35 years, Shirley has mentored more than 35 social work student-interns from Syracuse University’s Falk College through placements with various HLAS programs.
A Cazenovia resident, Shirley brings her work ethic and commitment to public service with her to several forums and organizations to which she is connected outside of her full-time employment. These include service on the boards of the Coalition for Health and Welfare of Syracuse and Onondaga County, as well as the Criminal Justice Committee.
She currently serves as a volunteer with the public affairs lecture series Cazenovia Forum, the Community Resources for Independent Seniors (CRIS), TimeBank Advisory Committee and helps bring weekly dinners to the community via Friendship Inn. She is also a volunteer with Literacy Volunteers, Pet Visitation at St. Camillus and Loretto, the Eden Alternative, From the Ground Up (an equine therapy program), the GCACC Senior Housing Study Committee and the Riverside Drive Committee.
Shirley will be honored with the Liberty Bell Award during the Law Day ceremony, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 1, at the Syracuse University College of Law, Dineen Hall, 950 Irving Avenue, Syracuse. Parking in the nearby Stadium Lot is free.
