Law students visit maximum security prison as part of Legal Methods III class
Most law school students will learn about the incarceration process, but few actually get to experience it first hand and have an understanding from both an inmate and a guard’s perspective. Prof. Amanda Smith wanted her Legal Methods III class to have the real-life experience and learn first-hand about inmates and correctional guards. So, she took them to prison.
Seven students from the Legal Methods III class participated in a tour of the State Correctional Institution in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. The prison visit dovetailed with an assignment that Prof. Smith gave to her students, which was to write a legal brief based on a hypothetical case they were working on in which a prison guard is their client. In the scenario, the prison guard is being sued by an inmate.
“I got a sense that a lot of students went in to the tour feeling sympathetic to the inmate, said Prof. Smith. “But in the case I gave them in class, the prison guard was their client. I think when they were finished with the tour their eyes were open to the correctional side and the dangers and risks that correctional officers take each day to keep the community safe.”
She added that the main purpose of the trip was to help students understand the views of both correctional guards and inmates and learn the importance of understanding all positions when representing clients.
The SCI Camp Hill prison holds approximately 5,500 inmates and is a maximum security facility. Some of the inmates are permanent residents of the facility, while others are there for a short amount of time before being sent to their permanent prison location.
The tour was conducted by Lt. Robert Williams and Unit Manager Chris Srebro. During the tour the students visited various building on the prison campus complex including the housing cell block, psychiatric unit, and the central processing area. While on the tour Williams and Srebro explained the many different tasks that are required by all of the prison personnel to make sure things run smoothly, including organizing individual inmate schedules every day.
“Having read many cases in which the term prison official and inmate are used frequently, the tour provided a human element to it,” said Vipul Patel, a 3L law student. “Between the stories of keeping the community safe, and stories told by the lieutenant and the psychiatrist, we do not fully appreciate how difficult their jobs are.”
Other students noticed the relationship that the guards built with the inmates to help build trust and diffuse a crisis situation before it happens.
“I learned a lot about the prisoner’s interactions with each other and the guards. In addition, I noted all of the precautions and safety measures that the guards need to be concerned about in order to protect themselves and the public,” Jason Caplan, 2L law student, said. “Included in this are the quality and upkeep of the facilities that are used to keep in the inmates incarcerated.”
Based on the reflection papers students were required to write after the tour, each student seemed to take something different away from the experience. Some focused on the civil rights of the prisoners, while others mentioned that they were surprised how inmates lived and the relationships they had with other inmates and guards.
“I honestly don’t know specifically what I was expecting from this experience. But it wasn’t what I expected at all,” said Andrea Fitzsimmons in her paper. “So many people only know about prison from what they hear or what they see on TV, and it was nice to get the chance to either prove or disprove much of that.”