This course is specifically designed to prepare 2L and 3L students for the day-to-day realities of criminal legal practice, including:

• Negotiation and Plea Strategy: Students will learn how judges, prosecutors, and defense counsel navigate Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) options and problem-solving courts as part of plea negotiations—a skill not typically covered in traditional criminal law/ procedure courses.
• Court Structure and Office of Court Administration Policy: Students will gain a working understanding of how the New York State Office of Court Administration structures and monitors problem-solving courts, and how judges evaluate and supervise ATI dispositions.

This course examines how attorneys—whether advocating for the defense, prosecution, or public policy—can leverage alternatives to incarceration (ATI), problem-solving courts, and restorative justice practices to pursue outcomes that prioritize community safety, accountability, and fairness. While ATI practices and problem-solving courts exist in jurisdictions nationwide, the course will be anchored in New York State’s Unified Court System and its extensive, diverse array of ATI and diversion models.

Through case studies, doctrinal analysis, legal drafting, and simulations, students will explore how these alternatives operate in practice, how legal actors negotiate dispositions in the vast majority of cases that do not go to trial, and how policy decisions shape the contours of justice in local and state systems. Students will complete a substantive final project focusing on one ATI pathway—whether specialized courts, community courts, diversion and deflection initiatives, restorative justice programs, or related innovations—and will evaluate its legal, ethical, and social justice implications.

Recommended for the following Professional Pathways: Civil Rights/Civil Liberties; Criminal Defense; Criminal Prosecution; Family Law; Government/Public Sector; Immigration; International Law/Human Rights; General Practice – Litigation/Dispute Resolution

2 Credits