Freedom Denied: Combatting Pretrial Detention

This webinar will train you to keep your clients out of jail. Professor Siegler will also share the shocking results of her national investigation of federal pretrial detention, which reveals a crisis of epic proportions, with federal judges jailing our clients in violation of federal law, jailing clients for poverty, and even locking people in jail without lawyers. You will learn how to marshal the Bail Reform Act to combat those unlawful practices, reduce racial disparities, and win your clients' release. The presentation (90 minutes) will be followed by a Q&A session (30 minutes).

Presenter:

Alison Siegler is the Founding Director of the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic (FCJC) at the University of Chicago Law School, the first legal clinic devoted to representing indigent clients charged with federal felonies, pursuing impact litigation in federal court, and engaging in systemic reform of the federal criminal system. Professor Siegler's clinic recently published the first comprehensive national investigation of federal pretrial detention, Freedom Denied: How the Culture of Detention Created a Federal Jailing Crisis, which finds that federal judges routinely violate the Bail Reform Act and jail clients unlawfully. Professor Siegler has testified before Congress about the need for federal bond reform. She has also trained hundreds of federal magistrate judges, AFDs, and CJA lawyers on the Bail Reform Act. Professor Siegler's clinic previously garnered national recognition for its contributions to groundbreaking federal race discrimination litigation in the "stash house" cases in Chicago. Before founding the FCJC, Professor Siegler served as a Staff Attorney with the Federal Defender Program in Chicago, a Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center's Criminal Justice Clinic, and a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman in Chicago. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale College, earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, and holds an LL.M. from Georgetown.

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) accreditation for this program will be sought in all applicable jurisdictions. Additional CLE information will be available after the conclusion of this program. For more information about CLE, please visit our CLE Information Center.