Criminal Justice Program at UCLA School of Law

📣New article alert!

Check out CJP Faculty Director Ingrid Eagly’s
& Steven Shafer’s new article in the Virginia Law Review titled “Detained Immigration Courts.” They argue that detained immigration courts threaten due process & fundamental fairness by disadvantaging people detained during their case. 🔗 in bio!

As the semester comes to a close, we look back on CJP’s incredible lineup of events this semester! We kicked it off with our panel on the closure of California’s youth prisons, featuring Ka’lee Matthews (Arts for Healing and Justice Network), Grecia Reséndez (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice), and Aditi Sherikar (Children’s Defense Fund California).

We then hosted César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández for a book talk on his new book “Welcome the Wretched”.

Next was our panel focused on how attorneys advocating for incarcerated people in prisons can partner with journalists to expose dangerous and sometimes deadly conditions inside, featuring Corene Kendrick (ACLU) and Jimmy Jenkins (Arizona Republic).

Following that, we hosted Judge John Gleeson who talked about his efforts through the Holloway Project to advocate for second look sentencing for people incarcerated in the federal system.

Last but not least, UCLA Law alumni and current Parole Commissioner Jack Weiss joined us to talk with our students about his role as a commissioner and the California parole process. Thank you to all our amazing panelists for joining us and sharing your incredible knowledge and experience with our students!

Leah Zeidler-Ordaz of authored a toolkit to help juris­dic­tions cre­ate & imple­ment youth diver­sion pro­grams. Addressing Legal Issues in Youth Diversion: A Toolkit offers recommendations so communities can proactively —and successfully — address many of the common legal issues they are likely to face when implementing diversion programs. Thank you to & for supporting and uplifting our work! More here 👉 https://www.aecf.org/blog/legal-considerations-for-successful-youth-diversion-programs

📢📢CALL-ing ALL PERFORMERS!!📢📢 is looking for dancers, singers, poets, and all other performers to share their talents at our festival on Friday night, April 15! For more information & to apply, check out bit.ly/CALLPerformers2023 —deadline extended to Mon, Mar 6!

CJP stands in solidarity with youth and their families subjected to violence by the LA County Probation Department. We uplift the transformative proposals of Youth Justice Reimagined that will create programs centering the wellbeing and safety of all youth.

📢📢CALL-ing ALL PERFORMERS!!📢📢 The Connecting Art for Law & Liberation Festival is looking for dancers, singers, poets, and all other performers to share their talents at our festival on Friday night, April 15! For more information and to apply, check out bit.ly/CALLPerformers. Applications are due Fri, Feb 27.

📢 Calling all artists, lawyers, activists, advocates and scholars! 📢

We are still seeking proposals for the 2023 Connecting Art & Law for Liberation (CALL) Festival! The deadline to submit has been extended to February 3.

We request proposals focus on one or more of the following:
* Movements to End Mass
Incarceration
* Envisioning/Imagining Abolition
* Restorative & Transformative Justice

Please see bit.ly/CALLRFP2023 for more information.

We are currently accepting proposals for workshops and performances for the 2023 CALL Festival! Proposals should include content on ending mass incarceration, envisioning/imagining abolition, &/or restorative/transformative justice. More info: bit.ly/CALLRFP2023

Tonight at 6 pm, join CJP’s Youth Justice Policy Lead Leah Zeidler-Ordaz and 2L Mariana Garcia Godoy at the , where they will be presenting on the history of the child welfare and juvenile legal systems as part of a training series for the Youth Commissioners. Open to the community! Register using link in photo.

In California, nearly ¾ of people incarcerated in jails are unsentenced. Most are incarcerated because they cannot afford California's high bail amounts. In 2021, the CA Supreme Court decided, in In re Humphrey, that setting bail at unaffordable amounts is unconstitutional. Our UCLA Law Bail Practicum along with have released a new report that finds that the implementation of the Humphrey decision has come up short. Bail amounts have not decreased and there does not seem to be a marked decrease in the number of people held in jail pretrial. We make several recommendations that highlight that significant work is still needed to fix the ongoing crisis of pretrial incarceration. Read more here: bit.ly/comingupshort

Welcome to our inaugural Pretrial Justice Fellow, Isabelle Geczy, who will be partnering with us and to change pretrial release conditions, create judicial training resources, and help establish new bail fund sites for the Bail Project across the country!

Before joining the Bail Project, Isabelle spent her time in law school fighting mass incarceration, orchestrating mutual aid volunteer efforts, and learning to defend civil rights. As a researcher for the UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars Data Project, Isabelle further uncovered the failures of geriatric parole reform measures in Nevada. She also served as the Chief Articles Editor of the UCLA Law Review.

Prior to law school, Isabelle was an organizer at Greenpeace USA for over three years, where she built support for campaigns combatting the causes of climate change.

Isabelle received her J.D. from UCLA School of Law, graduating with a specialization in Public Interest Law and Policy. She received her B.A. from UC Santa Barbara, graduating magna cm laude.

Check out our new toolkit on addressing legal issues in youth diversion, authored by Youth Justice Policy Lead Leah Zeidler-Ordaz! 🐦