Re-Entry Clinic Looks to Help Child Offenders Caught in Maryland’s Broken Parole System
Jan. 19, 2021
As the global pandemic endures so must the work of students in the American University Washington College of Law Re-Entry Clinic. The Re-Entry Clinic provides the opportunity for law students, especially those enrolled in the part-time program, to help their clients gain parole and overcome barriers related to their re-integration into society.
Students develop their roles as lawyers through the services they provide under the direction of Visiting Professor Margaret Martin Barry.
“Overall, gaining parole for our clients – child offenders serving life sentences – is extremely difficult, but the effort is worthwhile,” says Barry. Re-Entry Clinic students put together parole packets that tell their clients’ stories and show the progress they have made over their many years in prison.
COVID-19 has made meeting with clients and gathering needed documentation particularly difficult, and Barry believes this will continue for some time. “Our clients are in lock-down and, for the most part, have been since last March,” said Barry. “Some have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, requiring further isolation in different facilities, leaving Clinic students piecing together what has happened and again reducing access to their clients.”
Because getting parole is so difficult in the Maryland system, the Clinic has been moving more into the area of seeking resentencing through the courts when they have supportive state’s attorneys. This is procedurally difficult, but they were able gain the release of one of their clients in December, through collaboration with State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy.
The Clinic has worked to bring attention to the challenges in gaining parole. “I worked on planning the webinar last October, “Maryland’s Broken Parole System,” sponsored by the Judge Williams Center at UMD, and cosponsored by AUWCL and others,” said Barry. “The clinic is working on legislative strategy and testimony, and I am working with other advocacy groups on bills that have been introduced in the current legislative session in Maryland.”
Barry has recently written two pieces published in Maryland Matters that discuss two of the four bills their team is supporting, including abolishing juvenile life-without-parole sentences, and removing the Governor from the parole process. In the coming months, the Re-Entry Clinic will continue to support their clients via Zoom meetings and advocating for these important legislation changes.