Announcing C-CAT 2.0

Several years ago the School obtained a grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to create an online, searchable database of the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction in North Carolina. In 2012, after two years of legal and IT work, we launched the Collateral Consequences Assessment Tool, or C-CAT for short, to assist attorneys, reentry professionals, affected individuals, and policymakers in understanding the impact of a criminal conviction. We’re happy to announce we have given C-CAT a new look. It is available, still at no charge, at http://ccat.sog.unc.edu/. Before explaining the new features, I want to tout the two people who spearheaded the creation of C-CAT—Whitney Fairbanks, formerly with the School and now Assistant Director and General Counsel for the Office of Indigent Defense Services (IDS); and Daryl Atkinson, previously at IDS and currently the Second Chance Fellow for the U.S. Department of Justice. Both devoted extensive time to researching and compiling the myriad collateral consequences of a criminal conviction in North Carolina and translating the information into an accessible, online format. Their work has become a model for similar efforts in other parts of the country. The new version of C-CAT, undertaken by Jeff Austin (an attorney and part-time researcher at the School responsible for keeping C-CAT up to date) and Nicole Benes (one of the School’s IT magicians), includes the same information as the original version. It covers the major categories of collateral consequences resulting from a criminal conviction, such as employment and professional licensing and civic rights. [...]