Sessions Information

  • May 2, 2018
    9:00 am - 10:30 am
    Session Type: AALS Programs
    Session Capacity: N/A
    Location: N/A
    Room: Wilson Room
    Floor: Third Floor

    Accessing Injustice

    Elizabeth Saunders-Nevins, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University

    Accessing Injustice takes a close look at a part of the criminal justice system that is often unseen, but which affects a great many individuals:  a courtroom where low-level, municipal offenses are prosecuted.  The court was under the radar of almost everyone else in the Nassau County courthouse and, as we were horrified to learn, it seemed to offer none of the procedural protections that the defendants should have been entitled to.  Defendants were obligated to meet, pro se, with their prosecutors.  They were not advised of their right to counsel, or even appointed counsel.  And they were, routinely, charged hundreds of dollars that they could not pay.  They were confused and upset and provided little or no recourse.  To learn more about the proceedings, the Criminal Justice Clinic at Hofstra Law School engaged in a court-watching study and documented the proceedings for five weeks straight.  The article explores the findings, as well as the policy changes in the courthouse that we did (and did not) achieve as a result of them.  Ultimately, what we found is significant not only for what it says about this one particular courtroom, but what this one particular courtroom says about the state of justice for people charged with “low level” offenses throughout the country. 

     

    The Cost of Accidental Incarceration

    Zina Makar, University of Baltimore School of Law

    There has been a progressive push for nearly three decades to allow for the wrongfully convicted to seek compensation for their time served. There is no similar avenue of recourse, however, for the millions of pre-trial detainees who lose months of their lives before they are acquitted at trial or have their charges dropped. This lost time is pure loss. Therefore, the logical question is why these analogous situations are treated so differently, especially given that pre-trial detainees are granted substantially fewer procedural protections than someone who has had a trial.   

    This Article tackles that very question by tracing the root of the issue to the idea that erroneous pre-trial incarceration is “accidental.” In this context, accidental means no bad legal standard or clearly identifiable individual bad actor causes the problem of uncompensated incarceration. Rather, the problem is endemic to the entire system itself, which is overburdened by volume and dumbly drifting along in an effort to stay afloat. Therefore, this problem necessitates a system wide solution.

Session Speakers
University of Baltimore School of Law
Works-in-Progress Presenter

Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University
Works-in-Progress Presenter

Session Fees

Fees information is not available at this time.