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Law students will learn to teach and communicate complex legal principles and skills to individuals taking college courses in three correctional facilities in the region.
Course Components
This course has both a community teaching component and a classroom component.
Community Teaching
Students in the practicum will coteach a law related course at Auburn, Cayuga, or Five Points correctional facilities, as part of the Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP), whose mission is to provide high quality higher education in New York State prisons; to help CPEP students build meaningful lives inside prison as well as prepare for successful re-entry into civic life; and to inform thought and action on social justice issues among past and present CPEP students, volunteers, and the wider public.
Accepted students will work with the professor to design a detailed law course syllabus, procure teaching materials, and teach a two-hour class inside one of the prisons once a week for approximately 15 weeks.
Students must travel to and from a correctional facility on a weekly basis with their coteaching partner, at their own expense.
Classroom Component
The classroom component will include reflections on the legal landscape of prisons and the role of education, legal information, libraries, and lawyers in prisons. The classroom component will also include building communication, presentation, teaching, and critical pedagogy skills to teaching rounds. Law students will be challenged to create new activities, assignments, and teaching methods to communicate complex legal principles to nonlawyers in an engaging and informative way.
Fall Debate Class
Beginning in fall 2024, advanced students will lead debate classes at Auburn and Cayuga correctional facilities. These classes focus on facilitating and teaching oral argument. There is an opportunity for select 2Ls to partner with the advanced student leaders in the fall semester. Please contact Professor Mizutani for additional information.
Adjunct Professor Julia Mizutani, foreground in red robe, attended the graduation of a group of students in the Cornell Prison Education Program in October 2023.
Practicum student Josh Roth ’24 (second from left) attended the graduation of thirteen students at Cayuga Correctional Facility in May 2024. The students received their associate degree in arts in humanities and social science.
The spring 2024 student of the Cornell Prison Education Program at Cayuga Correctional Facility celebrate their graduation.
In May 2024, Cayuga CPEP Debate Team formally competed against the Cornell Speech and Debate Team. The CPEP Debate Team was taught and coached by three law students; Josh Roth ’24 (pictured here on the far right) and Daniel Imakyure ’24 taught oral argument in fall 2023, and Sarah Stevenson-Peck ’25 (front row, second from left) facilitated the Debate Club in the spring. The debate topic was whether Artificial Intelligence will do more harm than good. CPEP Debate team members (pictured here in green) competed against Cornell Speech and Debate Team members. There were formal opening arguments, three main arguments, challenges, rebuttals, and closing arguments. The CPEP Debate Team argued that AI will do more harm to society than good due to existential threats such as its environmental impact, its ability to cause disinformation in society, and the likelihood that it will increase wealth inequality. The CPEP Debate Team won.
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Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, law students will be able to
- Create a client-centered environment
- Communicate complex legal principles to community members, clients, and nonlawyers
- Navigate the inequities of legal information in carceral settings
- Critically examine the role of lawyers and the legal system in creating and maintaining the prison industrial complex
- Demonstrate and apply effective cultural competency and trauma-informed practices with clients/students
- Assess their own cultural perspective and the potential for associated biases, and how these shape their professional role
- Practice working and collaborating closely with a partner through pair teaching
About the Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP)
CPEP's mission is to provide high quality higher education in New York State prisons; to help CPEP students build meaningful lives inside prison as well as prepare for successful re-entry into civic life; and to inform thought and action on social justice issues among past and present CPEP students, volunteers, and the wider public.
Applying to the Practicum
Due to the logistics of teaching in prisons, law students must apply and be accepted to the practicum in the early fall. Accepted students are required to go through the following screenings:
- Department of Corrections background check
- Submit a negative TB test result
- Attend a mandatory Department of Corrections orientation prior to spring semester
Accepted law students will also work with Professor Mizutani and CPEP to design a detailed law course syllabus and create or procure casebooks or other course materials to submit to the Department of Corrections for review by November.
Interested law students must apply by sending a statement of interest and resume/CV to Professor Mizutani by September 1 in order to enroll in the practicum for spring.
Students interested in participating in the fall debate class should contact Professor Mizutani by April 1.
