Legal Minds on Legal Matters and Whatever Else Strikes Our Fancy

There is a debate fermenting at my law school, the University of Washington, over whether the school should fund a criminal prosecution clinic. I weighed in on the debate, and to the surprise of many, I said that I favor a prosecution clinic. I favor it because I think such a clinic, if done properly, is an indispensable part of changing the criminal justice system in a way to end mass incarceration. Because some of my classmates do not understand my position, I thought I would share my thoughts here.

Let me first give some context. This country has a problem called mass incarceration. The U.S. locks up more people than any other country on the planet, even more than China, which has a few more billion people than we do. We also have a large racial disparity in our criminal justice system, as we lock up a disproportionately large number of people from communities of color. Part of the problem, but surely not the bulk of it, lays at the feet of prosecutors, some of whom believe that their primary job is to lock up as many people as possible for as long as possible.

Given the problem, some of my classmates question, and rightly so, whether UW law school should fund a prosecution clinic, and whether such a clinic evokes the wrong image for a school deeply invested in public interest, and especially, invested in ending mass incarceration. Our school motto is “Leaders for the Global Common Good,” and one of my more comedic classmates said that after the prosecution clinic starts, we should change the motto to the “Jailers for the Common Good.”

I should also point out that our sister school, Seattle University School of Law, rejected the prosecution clinic, largely, from what I hear, on social justice grounds.

Now, not everyone is opposed to the clinic. Some of my classmates desire a prosecution clinic because they plan to begin their career inside a prosecutor’s office and they value clinical experience in their field. They also value trial advocacy experience, which the clinic will provide.

My reasons for valuing a prosecution clinic are many. Most importantly, anyone who thinks that we can end mass incarceration without prosecutors is simply wrong. Prosecutors possess power. The power of discretion in deciding whether to charge, in deciding how to charge, and the discretion in recommending a sentence once a prosecutor proves his or her charge. This is largely why my good friend and mentor, who is one of the top criminal defense attorneys in Nebraska, told me that a prosecutor can do way more justice than any defender ever can. Read More »