Meet Justice Fellow Makenzie Winger

Makenzie Winger

Makenzie Winger was spending Valentine’s Day 2019 with her then fiancé when she received an email from her department head at Taylor University. The email described something called a Justice Fellowship at a nonprofit legal organization in Indianapolis. “I stopped everything we were doing to read my fiancé the job description,” Makenzie recalls. “It was an opportunity to continue to learn more about justice issues, to step into the legal field for the first time, and to do work that felt meaningful. I also wouldn’t have to worry about finding housing. It just sounded like the perfect job for this phase of my life.”

The next day, Makenzie began writing her application and was soon accepted as one of two 2019-2020 fellows at Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic. Originally, she applied for the position of immigration paralegal, but was offered a role at our Expungement Help Desk at the City-County Building instead. “I knew about the massive barriers to reentry facing people leaving the criminal justice system, but I had never heard of expungement,” she says. “When I learned more about what was going on at the Help Desk, I was very excited to be a part of it.” A May 2019 college grad with a degree in International Studies: Peace, Reconciliation, and Justice, this fellowship was Makenzie’s first full-time job and a chance to put her degree into action.

As part of the fellowship, Makenzie lived in a rent-subsidized house with two other women from the Clinic—another fellow and the director of the fellowship. In addition to their regular work, they spent several hours a week learning about housing issues and immigration, reading books, and visiting different nonprofits throughout Indianapolis.

Over the course of her year at the Help Desk, Makenzie has gone from knowing nothing about expungement to possessing fluency in Indiana’s Second Chance Law. She understands who can file and how; she knows there is no expungement option for sex crimes or for crimes involving a loss of life. And she shares this knowledge with those who visit the Help Desk. “A person comes in, we review their criminal history together, I help them understand their eligibility, and I give them next steps,” she says. “If they’re eligible, I help them create the petition or petitions they’ll need to file with the courts in order to have their record expunged.” With the COVID-19 pandemic, this work, once done face-to-face, is now conducted over the phone.

Prior to the proliferation of COVID-19, Makenzie was spearheading an effort to assist Help Desk visitors with getting a suspended driver’s license reinstated. They were in the process of securing funding and partnerships when the pandemic hit. “This project is on hold for now, but I’m hopeful that one day the Clinic will be able to help meet this need,” says Makenzie.

Now, the fellowship is over, and Makenzie was just married to her fiancé on May 15. Soon, she is moving to Waco, TX for her new husband’s graduate studies. But she will always cherish the memories of changed lives through her Help Desk work. “We helped a man named Stanley create paperwork to expunge a felony from nearly 30 years ago that had been keeping him from making over minimum wage, despite his history with the U.S. Army and various other trainings,” she says. “His expungement took less than 90 days and, less than two weeks after his expungement was granted, he landed a good job working for Building Authority right down the hall from us.”

Although Makenzie is moving on from her work at the Help Desk, she wants the public to understand something very important. “This second chance doesn’t just benefit the person with a criminal history, it impacts the whole community … When we keep people from reentering various aspects of our society, we not only risk continued criminal activity, but we miss out on the talent, creativity, and value that people with a record could be bringing to the table,” she says. “I really feel that the second chance an expungement provides is not only an act of justice, but also an act of mercy that reflects the mercy the Father shows each one of us.”

To learn more about our Expungement Help Desk, please visit our website. To access expungement assistance during COVID-19, please call 877-236-0730 ext. 2.