RECOMMENDED: Evidence and Criminal Procedure
The Prison Law Clinic is a specialized legal clinic that provides legal advice, assistance and representation to prisoners in the seven penitentiaries in the Kingston area. This clinical course provides 2nd and 3rd year students with the opportunity to develop essential lawyering skills by becoming involved in the legal practice carried on by the Prison Law Clinic. Students will interview prisoner clients and represent them at trials in Penitentiary Disciplinary Courts and at Hearings before the Parole Board of Canada. Students will also be involved in providing legal advice and assistance to prisoner clients on a variety of other matters. Through the experience of involvement in the Clinic's legal practice, including its litigation, students will have many opportunities to develop skills in advocacy, interviewing clients, legal analysis and managing effective solicitor/client relationships. Students will work extensively with the time and case management system that the Queen's Law Clinic (QLC) uses. Instruction is provided through lectures, written materials and through individual supervision of student casework by the Clinic lawyers.
The class will meet for 3 hours each week on a date and time to be set and students will attend at the QLC, 5th Floor, LaSalle Mews, 303 Bagot Street, Kingston regularly and as required to meet with clinic lawyers and complete casework. Students will also attend at one or more penitentiaries regularly and as required in the course of their work.
Grading will be based on an evaluation of the casework completed by the student throughout the year and other possible assignments. Participation in class discussions is encouraged.
A maximum of 18 students will be admitted to this course. Students will be selected by the Clinic Director based on a written application process.
Queen¿s Law policy limits students to only one of the following clinical courses: QBLC LAW 438, QELC LAW 695, QFLC LAW 527, QPLC LAW418, QLA LAW 590. Students enrolled in one of those five clinical courses are not eligible for enrolment in another.