How We Are Involved
About the Program
Yale Law School offers a rich academic experience studying criminal law through many different lenses. In addition to a variety of courses, students can collaborate with faculty on empirical research, work on reform efforts, and gain hands-on experience through work with clinics and student organizations.
Faculty
Yale Law Report Feature, 2016
Centers & Programs
Two vibrant centers at the Law School create a myriad of ways for students to get involved in criminal justice reform work that is having a profound impact across the country.
Justice Collaboratory
Experiential Learning
Several clinics and student organizations play an important role in introducing students to the state and federal criminal justice systems and affording the students an opportunity to represent individual clients and pursue systemic reforms.
Beshar/Lehner Gender Violence Clinic
Challenging Mass Incarceration Clinic
Criminal Justice Advocacy Clinic
Samuel Jacobs Criminal Justice Clinic
Thursday, October 27, 2022
News
Symposium Explores Incarceration and the Human Mind
The Incarceration and Imagination symposium brought together scholars, activists, artists, writers, students, and the public to explore the realities of incarceration, its narratives, and the literature and social movements that surround it.
Tuesday, November 01, 2022
Thursday, October 13, 2022
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Thursday, October 27, 2022
The symposium Incarceration and Imagination explored writing inside and outside of prison walls.
Friday, November 18, 2022
In The Press
Why Slavery as a Punishment for Crime Was Just on the Ballot in Some States
PBS News Hour
Clinical Professor of Law Claudia Flores comments on the use of prison labor in the U.S. in light of state ballot measures that would outlaw slavery as a legal punishment for crime.
Sunday, November 6, 2022
In The Press
What Critics of Progressive Prosecution Get Wrong About Crime Spikes and the Reform Movement
CNN
J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law James Forman Jr. ’92 comments in an analysis of the progressive prosecutor movement.
Thursday, October 27, 2022
In The Press
This Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Let's Give Connecticut Survivors A Chance At Fair Sentences — A Commentary By Elizabeth Clarke ’23 and Ali Fraerman ’23
Elizabeth Clarke and Ali Fraerman are members of the Yale Law School class of 2023.
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
In The Press
The Strange History and Impact of Broken Windows — A Commentary by Tracey L. Meares
Vital City
Tracey L. Meares is the Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law and a Founding Director of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School.
Saturday, October 22, 2022
In The Press
Why a Question About Slavery Is Now on the Ballot in 5 States
The New York Times
Clinical Professor of Law Claudia Flores comments on ballot measures in five states that would ban slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment.
Friday, September 30, 2022
In The Press
California Governor Vetoes Limits on Solitary Confinement
Al Jazeera
Arthur Liman Professor of Law Judith Resnik comments on the decline in the use of solitary confinement in prisons nationally. The story also cites a report co-authored by the Liman Center on the number of people in solitary confinement in the United States.
Alumni Profiles
At Yale Law School, we think hard about law, with freedom to challenge basic assumptions embedded within our legal institutions and to construct new frameworks.”
Monica Bell
Class of 2009, Associate Professor of Law and Associate Professor of Sociology