UCLA School of Law Professor Noah Zatz
UCLA School of Law Professor Noah Zatz

UCLA School of Law Professor Noah Zatz and scholars at the UCLA Labor Center have published a groundbreaking report on Los Angeles County’s broken system of court-ordered community service.

UCLA Law students work with veterans at the ticket-clearing clinic in September.
UCLA Law students work with veterans at the ticket-clearing clinic in September.

UCLA School of Law’s Veterans Legal Clinic and Criminal Justice Program partnered with the Oakland-based community organization Root & Rebound to hold a ticket-clearing clinic at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs West Los Angeles campus on Sept. 27, providing pro bono legal services for veterans.

New Report: "Counting the Days: The Story of Prolonged Detention During COVID-19"

The UCLA Law COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project, in collaboration with the Bronx Defenders, Columbia Law School’s Center for Institutional and Social Change and Zealous, has launched a new electronic database of COVID-19-related materials designed to help lawyers, advocates, researchers, journalists and others interested in challenging, remedying, or drawing attention to the grave risk that COVID-19 poses to individuals who are detained.

Alicia Virani

A report issued on Jan. 7 by UCLA School of Law’s Criminal Justice Program, the RAND Corporation and other organizations details the extent to which Los Angeles County may divert people with serious mental health disorders away from traditional criminal-justice processes and into community-based clinical programs or permanent supportive housing.

Prisoner behind bars

UCLA School of Law has created expansive databases that keep track of developments related to COVID-19 in prisons and jails nationwide. Launched amid the mounting coronavirus crisis — including reports of infections in high-risk places where large numbers of people are packed into tight quarters — the resources address two key areas.

UCLA Law’s Criminal Defense Clinic secured the release of their client, an inmate at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino (pictured), on April 10.
UCLA Law’s Criminal Defense Clinic secured the release of their client, an inmate at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino (pictured), on April 10.

Students and faculty members with UCLA School of Law’s Criminal Defense Clinic played a key role in securing the release last week of an at-risk inmate from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center as part of the clinic’s broader effort to reduce the acute risks to prisoners from the coronavirus.

Alicia Virani ’11 (far right) stands with members of the Bail Practicum in 2019. UCLA Law clinics have participated in a lawsuit seeking to protect prisoners during the COVID-19 crisis.
Alicia Virani ’11 (far right) stands with members of the Bail Practicum in 2019. UCLA Law clinics have participated in a lawsuit seeking to protect prisoners during the COVID-19 crisis.

Members of three UCLA School of Law clinics are part of a coalition including people who are incarcerated in Los Angeles County jails, lawyers and activists that has sued the county and county sheriff’s department seeking the release of medically vulnerable people and the implementation of heightened health and safety standards in jails during the coronavirus pandemic.

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