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Making Strides for Criminal Justice Reform: An Interview with Professor Alexandra Harrington

Published November 5, 2020

Head shot of Brent Gladney.

Brent Gladney is a freelance writer based in Buffalo, NY.

We interviewed Professor Alexandra Harrington, Director of the Criminal Justice Advocacy Clinic, about how they help students work with local groups to improve and advocate for criminal justice reform.

The University at Buffalo School of Law’s Criminal Justice Advocacy Clinic (CJAC) assists engaged students to work on behalf of incarcerated individuals and others facing criminal charges in Western New York. From work on resentencing cases to assisting with local police oversight reform, the clinic helps student attorneys discover ways to build client relationships, interview witnesses, conduct investigations and much more.

We asked the clinic’s Director, Associate Professor Alexandra Harrington, how their work with students and local organizations is helping further the cause of justice—especially in today’s political and social climate.

1. The current state of America’s criminal justice system comes from decades of policy entrenchment and harmful legislation like mandatory minimums. How difficult is it to bring about change? How will the Criminal Justice Advocacy Clinic (CJAC) help show students that change is possible?

Changing a system that has been operating for many decades to enact retribution and to disproportionately incarcerate black and brown people is not an easy proposition. Widespread change will not come from any one system actor. But individual attorneys can make a difference in how the system functions by challenging preconceptions of how it ought to operate. And they can make a vast difference for individual clients. Sometimes all we can do is disrupt the system one case at a time, and sometimes that’s quite a lot.

2. The University at Buffalo’s Advocacy Institute recently received a grant from the American College of Trial Lawyers which they will use in collaboration with the CJAC to support and represent incarcerated clients who have suffered serious domestic violence abuse and received harsh prison sentences as a result of that abuse. What are some of the goals of the Innocence and Justice Project and how will the clinic and students play a crucial role?

The Innocence and Justice Project previously had the mission of addressing wrongful convictions and seeking exonerations in cases where someone is innocent of the crime for which they were convicted. The current work of the clinic expands this mission by focusing on cases where there may not be factual innocence but where justice requires that the individual not be condemned to decades in prison and that their sentence is given another look. Clinic students are crucial to this mission because they are the ones who will be litigating the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA) cases. They have the ability, the time, the resources to investigate these cases and prepare a resentencing application that presents a holistic picture of our clients—not just a snapshot of one action, of one moment in time. Through the clinic we will be able to take on additional DVSJA cases in coming semesters to expand the capacity in the region to represent eligible clients.

3. What are some of the lesser-known nuances involved in defending survivors of domestic violence abuse? How will criminal justice reform help bring fairness to those victims?

I think one issue is to challenge stereotypes about what an abuser or victim of domestic violence looks like. There is no one way that domestic violence manifests. Domestic abuse happens across all socioeconomic strata. Some abusers are respected members of their communities. Some survivors fight back or challenge their abusers to try to defend some level of control in their lives. Survivors do not all respond in the same way to trauma. The criminal system has done a poor job historically of recognizing nuance, particularly in the area of domestic violence. Reforms like the DVSJA help to protect survivors from unduly harsh sentences and to allow survivors who have already served decades in prison to get another look at their sentence.

4. What do you consider some of the largest hurdles for criminal justice reform—both on a federal and state level?

It’s difficult to identify a few hurdles—there are many. One, I think, is the popular will to see criminal justice reform enacted. Conversations about reform are filtering into the public consciousness and it’s becoming more mainstream to support changing the criminal legal system. Yet, these conversations often end with violent crime. There is an unwillingness to include people convicted of violent offenses in the discussions of reform, as well as an inclination to think that we can carve out violent crime and still address mass incarceration. Yet, the majority of state prison populations are made up of people who have been convicted of violence offenses. People who are serving draconian sentences. People who are also deserving of a second look.

Another hurdle is the financial incentives to maintain the system we have. The system is quite lucrative for many large business and organizations. On a more human level, it also employs thousands of people. In small towns where many facilities are located, the prison may be the main employer. Reversing these incentives and challenging the financial will to maintain the status quo is not an easy endeavor.

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5. How can both law students and regular citizens help contribute to criminal justice reform efforts?

Law students can be involved in clinics to represent individual clients or work on impact litigation or policy reform; they can volunteer with Legal Aid or local criminal justice reform organizations. They can also contribute by changing conversations and helping to increase awareness of the need for reform not just for people convicted of nonviolent offenses but for everyone. They can advocate, in their communities and at their legislature, and they can support local and federal reforms. 

6. Criminal justice reform has become a more familiar talking point this year due to significant high-profile cases involving the unjust killings of members of black communities. How related is criminal justice reform to movements like Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police? Will the clinic’s work factor in to the current political climate?

It is impossible to engage in this work without reckoning with the current political climate. It colors the experiences of our clients and the students in the clinic. We grapple with some of these issues in our clinic’s seminar and they inevitably come up in the work that we’re doing. Some of our project work directly tackles these issues, like research we’re conducting on behalf of the Buffalo Police Advisory Board (BPAB).

7. Criminal justice reform involves not just countless hours of work but a passion from those involved for the betterment of society. What can students who are interested in activism expect from the clinic? Will they get to see their efforts produce change during their time at UB’s School of Law?

Every clinic student is involved in direct representation in individual cases. Student teams also have the opportunity to work on projects that involve broader policy reforms, like the BPAB project, and on class action litigation against a federal prison.

Some student teams will see their clients resentenced. Others may be able to assist their clients through alternate legal avenues. One clinic team has already helped their client prepare for her first parole hearing at which she was granted parole. Yet, we will not win every case. Regardless, the students are contributing to change through every case they work on and every client they represent. No matter the outcome, every student in the clinic will have amplified their client’s voice and served as their advocate, will have stood up for them. Sometimes that’s the most powerful thing we can do for our client.

8. There’s so much to consider with criminal justice reform that it can be difficult to know where to begin. What advice do you have for prospective law students who want to get involved in criminal justice reform before applying to UB School of Law?

You can’t solve every problem and you can’t do it alone. But you can make a huge impact in individual lives. Find the issue that speaks most to you and look for volunteer opportunities with local organizations or local representatives that are working on this issue. Read and learn from others working in these areas, and engage in conversations about reform with the people in your life.

Discover more about the Criminal Justice Advocacy Clinic and Associate Professor Alexandra Harrington. If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, please contact The Domestic Violence hotline online at https://www.thehotline.org/ or via telephone at 1-800-799-SAFE(7233).

Head shot of Brent Gladney.

Brent Gladney is a freelance writer based in Buffalo, NY.

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