Stanford University
Inside Justice is an
effort to get students
outside of the classroom
and into places
where criminal
justice is actually
happening in California.
That could be at arraignments.
That could be visiting
different detention facilities.
Inside Justice provides law
students with opportunities
to interact with professors
and other faculty
at the law school in
real-world settings.
Our students take
a lot of courses
in criminal law and
criminal justice,
and we think it's important
for them to go out
and to see the actual places
where criminal justice is
practiced-- most recently,
the San Francisco County
Jail, a prison, a state prison,
San Quentin, various courts,
a misdemeanor arraignment
court, which is frankly
where a large majority of
actual criminal prosecutions
occur in the United States,
and a behavioral health
court, a special diversion
court for certain offenders
who have serious mental health
problems who might be better
treated in that context.
It's really important
to get law students
outside of the classroom and
away from their case books
to see how their work is
applied in the real world
and who it actually affects.
This provides an
organic environment
where students and
faculty members
are able to reflect
on their experiences.
When students participate
in Inside Justice,
it changes the sort
of questions that they
have from just strictly
legal questions to questions
about how a process should work
in misdemeanor arrangements,
and what's the most effective
way to keep everything fair
and in line with the
rules and laws that we
know when you're also faced
with resource constraints
and the system has to
function, and helps
give them a better vision of
the type of work environment
that they're going
into in the future.
For more, please visit
us at stanford.edu.
