White Collar Support Group Launches New Criminal Justice Reform Initiatives

The 9+ year-old group is taking the lead in pardon and expungement reform, right to banking for felons, and a Yale University research study on second chances.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL, UNITED STATES, April 28, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The White Collar Support Group™, the world’s first support group devoted to serving people navigating the white collar criminal justice system, and their families, is proud to announce its collaboration with Yale University School of Management Professor Erin Frey on her Professional and Personal Restoration Study.

The Professional and Personal Restoration Study explores how individuals who have experienced justice-related setbacks rebuild their lives personally and professionally. Professor Erin Frey of the Yale School of Management aims to identify key factors that either accelerate or hinder personal and professional restoration, with the ultimate goal of informing better practices, policies, and support structures for justice-impacted individuals.

“By centering the voices of people who have actually been through the justice system, Dr. Frey’s study has the potential to create meaningful, human-centered change,” shared Jeff Grant, founder of the White Collar Support Group, adding “We are thrilled to put the full weight of our 1,400 members behind the effort.”

“I am interested in talking to people at all stages of the process – pre-sentencing, pre-incarceration, post-supervised release,” shared Dr. Frey in a blog post on the White Collar Support Group website, adding interviews would be confidential and conducted over a video platform.

Interviews are underway now. Those interested may submit interest through a form on the White Collar Support Group website.

The Yale study marks the latest in a series of initiatives launched by the non-profit White Collar Support Group to address barriers faced by justice-impacted individuals. These efforts are an activation of more than 1,400 justice-impacted individuals who have a desire to take responsibility for their actions and the wreckage they caused, make amends, and move forward in a new way of life centered on hope, care, compassion, tolerance and empathy.

In addition to its collaboration with Professor Frey, the group has prioritized two critical areas of reform: expanding pathways for pardons and expungements, and securing a right to fair access to banking services for individuals with criminal records.

About the White Collar Support Group’s Pardons & Expungement Initiative:

For individuals with federal convictions, the road to redemption is obstructed. Unlike many state-level systems that offer expungement or record-sealing opportunities, there is currently no federal expungement process — only the distant hope of a Presidential pardon.

The White Collar Support Group is working to change that. Our Pardons & Expungement Initiative advocates for the creation of a fair, consistent federal process to clear eligible criminal records, offering individuals the chance to rebuild their lives without the permanent stigma of a conviction.

By opening a legislative pathway to expungement based on rehabilitation, time served, and personal growth, we can replace lifelong barriers with real opportunities for restoration and reintegration.

For information about getting involved, visit the White Collar Support Group’s page about its Pardons & Expungement initiative.

About the White Collar Support Group’s Right to Banking Initiative:

Access to banking services is essential for rebuilding one’s life after becoming justice-impacted, but for many, services are made unavailable.
Banks and financial institutions have the unchecked ability deny services without explanation, cutting people off from the financial tools needed to work, save, and support their families.

“Exclusion from the banking system mirrors the denial of health insurance to those with preexisting conditions. It perpetuates systemic inequities and is destabilizing for those who desperately need some stability,” shared Drew Chapin, member of the White Collar Support Group Steering Committee. “Every person should have the right to open a bank account, hold funds, and participate fully in the economy, regardless of the poor choices they’ve made in the past.”

The White Collar Support Group™ seeks to ensure every individual has access to basic banking services.

For information about getting involved, visit the White Collar Support Group’s page about its Right to Banking initiative.

About the White Collar Support Group™:

Founded in 2012 by Jeff Grant and Lynn Springer, the White Collar Support Group™ is the world’s first support group devoted to those navigating the white-collar justice system. It incorporated as a nonprofit in 2014 and received 501(c)(3) status in 2015. It held its first weekly online meeting in 2016 and since has hosted over 450 meetings on Zoom on Monday evenings, 7 pm ET, 6 pm CT, 5 pm MT, 4 pm PT. It is nonsectarian and inclusive, welcoming individuals of all faiths, agnostics and atheists. It has served over 1,400 individuals worldwide. More information is available on its website at prisonist.org.

For More Information:
Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div., info@prisonist.org, www.prisonist.org,
White Collar Support Group™
516 S. Dixie Hwy., #222, West Palm Beach, FL 33401
+1 212-859-3512
Media contact: press@grantlaw.com

Jeff Grant
White Collar Support Group™
+1 212-859-3512
Info@prisonist.org
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Yale Professor Dr. Erin Frey talks about her white collar research study