The Criminal Justice Program (CJP) at UCLA School of Law serves as a central hub for curriculum, research, and special projects in criminal and youth law. During the 2022-2023 school year, the students, staff, and faculty of CJP contributed to meaningful educational events and research on a range of criminal and youth law issues.

Thanks to a generous gift from The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, CJP launched the Research for Change Initiative this year. Research for Change harnesses the power of university-based research to inform real-world criminal legal topics and provides law students with invaluable training in the policy arena. The inaugural Research for Change Fellows were Emma Engler '24, Eushrah Hossain '23, Brisely Martinez '24, and Isaiah Zeavin-Moss '25. The 2022-2023 project conducted research on model legislation to enhance the availability and use of restorative justice in California, culminating with a convening that brought together over thirty restorative justice practitioners from across the state.

This year, CJP had the pleasure of hosting Los Angeles County Public Defender Ricardo García and Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. Each were in conversation with CJP Faculty Director Ingrid Eagly on topics ranging from sentencing reform to the future of public defense.

As a continuation of CJP’s work with Los Angeles County’s Department of Youth Development, CJP published a toolkit, “Addressing Legal Issues in Youth Diversion,” to assist jurisdictions developing youth diversion programs. The toolkit summarizes best practices, analyzes legal issues that may arise in implementing diversion programs, and highlights specific legal considerations for restorative justice diversion programs.

Together with the UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, CJP hosted a Fall 2022 symposium, “Guns Everywhere: Individual Rights and Communal Harms after NYSRPA v. Bruen.” The event brought together five panels of experts in the field to discuss topics including the Second Amendment, gun violence, and racial disparities in gun enforcement.

The award honors their work launching UCLA Law’s Behind Bars Data Project that initially kept accurate records on COVID-19 related deaths in custody. The Project has grown into the country’s most comprehensive public resource tracking prison deaths nationwide.

Professor Stuart Banner and his students in the Supreme Court Clinic filed three cert petitions in criminal cases: Diaz-Tomas v. North Carolina (challenging challenged state prosecutors’ practice of denying trials to people charged with driving while intoxicated under the Speedy Trial and Due Process Clauses); Jackson v. Ohio (arguing that a “search” under the Fourth Amendment is determined by analyzing the actions of the police officers as a group, not one by one); and Wilcox v. Maine (maintaining that a field sobriety test is a search necessitating probable cause).

Professor Eugene Volokh and his students in the Amicus Brief Clinic filed two friend-of-the-court briefs: State v. Golga (arguing that the Ohio Court of Appeals should reverse a telephone harassment conviction on First Amendment grounds); and Barton v. Texas (arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court should consider whether certain criminal harassment statutes violate the First Amendment).

Devon W. Carbado (with Bennett Capers, R.A. Lenhardt, and Angela
Onwuachi-Willig), Critical Race Judgments: Rewritten U.S. Court Opinionson Race and the Law.

Kimberlé W. Crenshaw (with African American Policy Forum),
#SAYHERNAME: Black Women’s Stories of Police Violence and PublicSilence.

Joanna Schwartz, Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable.