News

Criminal justice reform advocacy is an important function of the Duke Law Criminal Defense Clinic and one that is part of the student curriculum. 

As a final project, students are asked to identify a systemic problem they observed in the criminal court system, such as how the undersupply of shelters for homeless people, or lack of access to behavioral and substance use treatments contributes to frequent interactions with law enforcement.  

They are also asked to think through solutions, which may include utilizing local bail funds, for example, establishing relationships with community social services providers to improve access to care for clients, or collaborating with other organizations on legislative and policy advocacy efforts. 

“Once you get dropped into a public defense career and you have 60 and 80 cases at a time, it's hard to remember the systemic impacts of your advocacy,” said Taylor Dempsey JD ‘25, who plans to work as a public defender in New Jersey after leaving Duke Law.  

"With the clinic, I get to think, ‘Oh, this horrible thing happened to my client. What does it mean that this is happening to thousands of people?’ and then gear my advocacy in a very intentionally systemic manner. And it's cool to see what that looks like and get trained to think that way before I am overloaded with cases.” 

A theme that runs through many of the clinic’s cases, and that has become a focus of the clinic’s systemic reform efforts, is the criminalization of poverty through policies that, for example, require indigent defendants to pay fines and court fees they can’t afford.

“Even as experienced advocates, poverty is at the very center of so much of our work and it remains surprising and legally problematic,” said clinic director Elana Fogel.  

“We talk in class about the data that shows these issues. But it's very different when you've met with your client for hours, looked at their bank statements and their public benefit statements, and heard about their inability to get around because their car is in disrepair and they can't afford their rent next month,” Fogel said. 

“Even the students who come in with a deep understanding of how so much of one’s circumstances or identity can determine their outcome in the criminal system are shocked by walking through that alongside their client. Their experiences bring those lessons home, because it’s the reality of our criminal justice system.” 

For example, in the majority of probation violation cases the clinic handles, clients find themselves back in court because they could not afford the treatment that was a condition of their probation, Fogel said.  

The clinic is now working to raise awareness around criminal justice debt and collaborating with other organizations to advocate for legislative change in the fees charged to people on probation and the ability of courts to waive them.  

“We see it in case after case, so we fight for our clients and raise it in court, but also think about how we can disrupt this cycle on a systemic level,” Fogel said. “The impact of poverty is a pervasive problem that goes way beyond the few people that we're able to represent.”