Prerequisites: None

Exam Type: No Exam

This course offers a comprehensive look at mass incarceration and the criminal legal system, through an LGBTQ lens. The instructor, a former public defender with almost ten years of experience, has represented thousands of LGBTQ clients in criminal cases. Additionally, she established the first LGBTQ Defense Project within a public defender’s office in the United States. The course will explore the widespread violence and discrimination that LGBTQ individuals encounter at each phase of the criminal legal process.

We will explore specific questions, including: How does the criminal legal process—encompassing policing, prosecution, pre-trial detention, plea bargaining, trials, sentencing, incarceration, and re entry efforts—affect LGBTQ individuals uniquely? What structures in the criminal legal system permit the continuation of systematic violence against them? Additionally, we will examine the different strategies lawyers can employ in response to this injustice.

The experiences of LGBTQ individuals within the criminal legal system will serve as a focal point for examining the wider debate between abolition and reform within social movements. This seminar will explore how insights gained from the treatment of this group can inform approaches to working within systems riddled with injustice. We will address how successful changes can significantly improve people’s lives despite these systems making reform seem impossible.

This seminar aims to foster the development of essential skills for students planning to pursue careers in criminal law; direct legal services; racial, gender or economic justice; or related fields, focusing on effectively representing LGBTQ clients. It will also offer a platform for students to engage in critical thinking about policy initiatives that could lead to harm reduction or justice for those marginalized individuals impacted by mass incarceration.

Class materials include case law, legislative materials, reports, legal scholarship, and press accounts.