Challenging Mass Incarceration and Fighting Forensic Evidence: New Clinical Approaches to Dismantling the Criminal Legal Apparatus

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Session Type: Lightning Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: N/A

Room: Harborside Ballroom E

Floor: Fourth Floor

Students who enter clinics focused on the criminal legal system frequently express a desire not only to represent clients in discrete criminal cases, but also to learn ways to challenge the system more broadly. In this interactive session, drawing on two fairly new clinics that tackle criminal legal issues using novel, non-traditional approaches, we will ask what role clinics can play in teaching students how to approach challenging the criminal legal system outside of direct representation. In the Harvard Law Institute to End Mass Incarceration Clinic, students engage in research & advocacy that leverages the power of individuals and communities directly impacted by the criminal legal system to drive systemic change. Students partner with coalitions, organizers and activists to engage in movement-driven work that spans different areas of law, all with the shared goal of challenging mass incarceration. Most recently, students have engaged in a community-led campaign to challenge carceral infrastructure growth. In the nation’s first Forensic Defense Clinic, Maryland Carey Law students begin by acknowledging the reality that traditional forensic evidence and modern big data and surveillance technologies fuel carceral harm and enable core law enforcement functions, including surveillance and monitoring, policing, prosecution, and sentencing. Students use this knowledge to develop litigation strategies on behalf of individuals affected by forensic and technological evidence. Both clinics focus on expanding students’ understanding foundations of the modern criminal legal system using novel approaches – foundations that may receive less attention in traditional criminal clinics. We'll interrogate the benefits and hurdles of such clinical approaches. Is it better for students to engage in traditional defense representation before engaging in this type of work? Should students focus on the foundations of defense representation rather than attacking the criminal legal apparatus? We hope participants will leave the session with concrete ideas for new clinical approaches.