The Litigation Convenings are a series of three events that bring people from different disciplines and life experiences together to identify areas of supervision - probation and parole - that can be targeted with litigation to minimize the harmful impact of supervision systems. On October 14, 2022, sixteen people from across the United States attended the inaugural full day Litigation Convening at Columbia University in New York City to discuss recent litigation and to learn from advocates, researchers and practitioners to inform future work in this area. The Convenings are co-hosted by the ACLU, the Columbia University Justice Lab, and Yale University, with funding from Arnold Ventures.
The overarching goals of the Litigation Convenings are listed below:
- Understand some of the foundational and concurrent legal theories that have contributed to supervision as designed and lived.
- Understand strategies that have attempted to challenge or exploit those theories.
- Identify roadblocks and ideas for what could be tried next (including complementary and/or conflicting approaches in policy, practice, and advocacy).
Consistent with the goals above, the primary focus of the first convening was Due Process Rights in Revocation Policies and Procedures. Additional topics that emerged from the discussion included supervision conditions as well as needs, opportunities, and strategies for future research, practice, and policy change.
