The discussion will be moderated by clinical professors engaged in post-conviction work, including the representation of clients convicted of serious felonies, data collection, and collaboration with community partners for system reform. The moderators have supervised students on a range of matters including parole denial appeals, clemency petitions, various post-conviction litigation, and the implementation of New York’s recently enacted Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA).
The moderators will open and frame the discussion through their teaching experience. Teaching law students how to approach decarceration at the back end of the criminal legal system is vital to changing the paradigm through which society perceives mass incarceration. Often, conversations around ending mass incarceration focus exclusively on reforming approaches to drug-related or low-level non-violent crime. This emphasis obscures the need for reforms and representation focused on men and women serving long prison terms for conduct deemed violent felonies. Since mass incarceration took hold of this country, life and virtual life sentences have been doled out in huge numbers. Nationwide, over 200,000 people are serving life sentences. Our prisons are increasingly filled with aging and infirm people, who have been incarcerated for decades. Clinics are well-positioned to take on these clients, who have been condemned to invisibility within the prevailing decarceration framework, and would otherwise have no access to legal representation,
The second half of the discussion will address issues surrounding data and access to counsel. How can clinical professors collect and harness data to inform systemic changes, and how can they facilitate collaborations with the wider community to increase visibility and access to counsel for the populations they serve?