{"id":17459,"date":"2021-04-19T14:23:37","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T19:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/?p=17459"},"modified":"2021-04-19T14:23:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T19:23:37","slug":"dean-niedwiecki-proctors-lsat-at-two-minnesota-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/2021\/04\/19\/dean-niedwiecki-proctors-lsat-at-two-minnesota-prisons\/","title":{"rendered":"Dean Niedwiecki proctors LSAT at two Minnesota prisons"},"content":{"rendered":"

School explores offering legal education for incarcerated people<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Mitchell Hamline President and Dean Anthony Niedwiecki stands in front of the Shakopee (Minn.) Correctional Facility on Apr. 10, 2021, just before entering to administer an LSAT exam. It’s believed to be the first time the LSAT has been ever administered inside a prison in the U.S.<\/p><\/div>\n

Mitchell Hamline President and Dean Anthony Niedwiecki has proctored many exams in his life but never behind bars. When he administered the LSAT in two Minnesota correctional facilities earlier this month (Apr. 10 and 11), it was believed to be the first time that has happened inside a prison in the United States.<\/p>\n

Niedwiecki\u2019s prison visits stemmed from his personal commitment to extending access to education as widely as possible, but it may be that the school will soon be involved as well in educating current residents in correctional facilities.<\/p>\n

Two organizations \u2013 All Square<\/a> and Until We Are All Free<\/a> \u2013 along with the Minnesota Department of Corrections are collectively developing and raising money for a Prison-to-Law Pipeline program that would establish the first ABA-accredited juris doctorate and paralegal degree opportunities for inmates. The organizations are talking with Mitchell Hamline about providing the J.D. piece.<\/p>\n

The idea would need to be further developed and approved by faculty as well as by the American Bar Association, but Niedwiecki says Mitchell Hamline\u2019s expertise in providing remote education and its commitment to social justice make this project a great fit in concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur school is dedicated to access to a law school education for all,\u201d said Niedwiecki, who proctored the exam at a women\u2019s prison in Shakopee, Minn. and a maximum-security prison in Stillwater, Minn. \u201cOur groundbreaking work in delivering these courses online allows us to expand this vision to potentially include those in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project would extend a partnership Mitchell Hamline already has with All Square, a nonprofit social enterprise that invests in formerly incarcerated leaders through fellowships anchored in mental health, wealth, and entrepreneurship. Their work includes helping operate a grilled cheese restaurant.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Hamline\u2019s Reentry Clinic<\/a> has worked with All Square to offer classes to formerly incarcerated fellows on matters like applying for expungement. \u201cThe idea of legal education inside prisons is a logical extension of the kind of work we\u2019ve already been doing for former inmates,\u201d said Jon Geffen, the clinic\u2019s director.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about education, which is what we do as a law school,\u201d added Professor Brad Colbert, who also works with Mitchell Hamline\u2019s LAMP clinic \u2013 Legal Assistance for Minnesota Prisoners<\/a>. \u201cNobody is more impacted by the law than those incarcerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to work with Mitchell Hamline to hopefully make this idea a reality,\u201d said Kevin Reese, founder of Until We Are all Free.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legal discipline and community at large has already benefited from the expertise of formerly and currently incarcerated legal scholars who,\u00a0without\u00a0<\/em>ABA-accredited law degrees, have founded companies, drafted legislation, taught at legal institutions, sat on state boards of public defense, drafted and filed legal petitions, led campaigns, and mentored others towards post-conviction relief,\u201d said Emily Hunt Turner, CEO of All Square.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Prison-to-Law Pipeline will build on this expertise by formalizing accredited pathways to legal education\u00a0because of\u00a0<\/em>one\u2019s experience with incarceration, recognizing that the yield of legal practitioners with lived experience is an essential element of a fully representative legal discipline and a step towards healing the effects of flawed and racialized legal processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about being an antiracist law school, and our faculty passed a resolution<\/a> committing to being an antiracist law school,\u201d said Dean Niedwiecki. \u201cThis project would be an actual step towards being an antiracist law school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School explores offering legal education for incarcerated people Mitchell Hamline President and Dean Anthony Niedwiecki has proctored many exams in his life but never behind bars. When he administered the LSAT in two Minnesota correctional facilities earlier this month (Apr. 10 and 11), it was believed to be the first time that has happened inside … <\/p>\n

Dean Niedwiecki proctors LSAT at two Minnesota prisons<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5668,"featured_media":17462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[182,53,42,41,188,185,184,186,189,187,183],"class_list":["post-17459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-features","category-news","tag-all-square","tag-anthony-niedwiecki","tag-brad-colbert","tag-jon-geffen","tag-lamp-clinic","tag-lsac","tag-lsat","tag-prison","tag-prison-to-law-pipeline","tag-reentry-clinic","tag-until-we-are-all-free","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}