Upcoming Events
Crossing Divides
Featuring Judge Cheryl Krause and Judge Stephanos Bibas
Wednesday, Feb. 8, 12:10 to 1:00 p.m.
Private location
Open to the YLS community
Judith Resnik, Arthur Liman Professor of Law, will moderate a discussion between 3rd circuit judges Cheryl Krause and Stephanos Bibas about political polarization, their friendship across ideological divides, and their forthcoming joint book project.
The Visiting Room Project @ Yale
March 30–31, 2023
Co-sponsored with the Law and Racial Justice Center at Yale Law School
The Visiting Room Project is a digital experience that invites the public to sit face-to-face with people serving life without the possibility of parole to hear them tell their stories, in their own words. More than five years in the making, the project’s website is the only collection of its kind, containing over 100 filmed interviews with people currently serving life without parole. The interviews were filmed at Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which is, in many ways, the epicenter of life without parole sentences worldwide. As of 2022, more than 55,000 Americans are living in prisons serving life without parole, their lives largely hidden from public view.
From March 30–31, creators of the project and some men featured in the interviews who have since been released will visit Yale to talk about their experiences and their hopes for the project’s impact. More details, including a schedule of panels and other events, will be coming soon.
Past Events
Documenting and Digitalizing Data on Isolation in Prisons
Wednesday, Nov. 2, 12:10 to 1:00 p.m.
SLB Room 124 or via Zoom
RSVP for Lunch
Join the Liman Center for the launch of the website Seeing Solitary, which digitalizes the data from a decade of surveys and reports on the use of solitary confinement. The discussion will cover the findings, the research process, and ways advocates can access this data to help efforts to abolish the practice of solitary confinement. To RSVP for lunch or to receive a Zoom link, please contact alex.agosta@yale.edu.
Noncustodial Punishment, Coercive Surveillance, and Mental Health Treatment in Connecticut
Tuesday, Oct. 25, 12:10 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Sterling Law Building 109
Please join Dr. Kathryn Thomas and Hannah Duncan for an information session and lunch talk focused on supervised release and other forms of noncustodial punishment in Connecticut. Many conditions of release require justice-involved individuals to participate in substance use and mental health counseling. However, the quality of these treatment options, and accommodations for justice-involved individuals, are understudied and can increase the likelihood of future criminal justice contact. In the spring semester, YLS students will have the opportunity to enroll in a Liman Project focused on these issues for course credit.
Friday, Oct. 14, 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Whitney Humanities Center
This symposium seeks to understand both how a society imagines its prisons, and how the prisons themselves work upon the imaginations of those they incarcerate and those beyond their walls. It focuses on writings, films, and TV serials about life behind bars. To what extent has society repressed its dependence on prisons? How is it haunted by their existence? What does imprisonment do to the mind, and what can we learn about inner life and self-understanding from the incarcerated?
Monday, Sept. 12, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Law School Auditorium
The Liman Center will host Echoes of Attica, a performance about the 1971 uprising at Attica Prison and its aftermath. The play features original songs written and performed by Philadelphia rap poet and activist BL Shirelle and the gospel singer Simply Naomi. Based on court transcripts, recently released FBI files, and interviews with eyewitnesses, the show will be introduced by Carlos Roche — who survived the assault of Attica — and feature a post-performance panel discussion about U.S. prisons, past and present.