In Hudson v. Palmer, the United States Supreme Court observed that the manner by which a society treats those who have transgressed against its norms and customs is strong evidence of that society’s character and essence.

Since 1970, students in Yale Law School’s clinical programs in prisoners’ rights have provided legal assistance to incarcerated persons in state and federal prisons in Connecticut.  The clinical program was a pioneer in the field of student-driven prisoners’ rights legal advocacy and it remains one of the few prisoners’ rights advocacy clinical programs in U.S. law schools today.  In response to the complexity of national and state statutory, regulatory, and administrative systems affecting the lives of prisoners today, the program has developed along two lines: the Complex Federal Litigation clinic and the Prison Legal Services clinic.

It is the goal of the clinical programs in prisoners’ rights to not only teach students to be compassionate and rigorous litigators, but also to help repair the breach between Connecticut prisoners and the Constitution and laws designed to protect them.  Indeed, the need for effective advocacy is especially great in light of the recent restrictions—such as the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act of 1997 and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act on the ability of prisoners to defend their civil rights and challenge their conviction or sentence through the court system.