Decarceration and Community Reentry Clinic

More than 13 million people cycle through jails and prisons every year in the United States. Upon release, there are over 45,000 laws regulating where people with arrest records and criminal convictions can live, where they can work, how they can engage in the financial sector, how they can associate with their friends and family, and what resources they can access. More than two-thirds will be reincarcerated within five years — meaning there are more people incarcerated for a second or subsequent term than for the first time.

The purpose of this clinic is for students to develop legal skills to promote effective and sustainable strategies to decarcerate their communities. To accomplish this, students explore how mass incarceration was created and how it is maintained; investigate how the criminal legal system produces and reproduces racial and economic inequality; interrogate how and why contact with the criminal legal system often leads to unemployment/underemployment, housing instability/homelessness, financial insecurity and re-incarceration; critically examine criminal justice reform efforts, examining “reform” and “progress” in the context of mass incarceration; and work with currently and formerly incarcerated leaders to reimagine public health and public safety.

In the clinic, students will have the opportunity to work directly with currently and formerly incarcerated clients on parole cases, resentencing cases and reentry legal services. Cases handled through the clinic often involve opportunities to appear in court, to appear in front of parole boards, to participate in community-based clinics, and to visit jails/prisons.

The clinic is yearlong, but for the Fall 2024 term only, students who previously took a semester-long version of the clinic may enroll in the advanced clinic. Students are strongly encouraged to take Criminal Adjudication or Criminal Procedure Survey, either prior to or concurrently with the fall semester of the clinic.

To be considered for this clinic, students must both rank the clinic in the clinic lottery and submit application materials within the timeline set by the Student Records Office. Students selected for the clinic through the clinic application/lottery process will be automatically enrolled prior to the regular course lottery.

The positions that the clinic takes on behalf of its clients are independent of the views of the University of Virginia or the School of Law.