Law professor supports inmates' return to society

Listen to this article

Attorney Judith E. Olingy is no stranger to prison.

The clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin started the first re-entry program designed to help offenders transition back into society.

Known as the Community Supervision Legal Assistance Program (CSLAP), the initiative connects law students with people on probation or parole to provide legal guidance on such issues as child support or filling out federal social security applications.

“Re-entry clinics are certainly something very much en vogue these days as a way to keep people out of prison from going back,” Olingy said. “There is a huge pipeline of people.”

Since it began in fall 2008, CSLAP has had more than 100 clients.

And starting this summer, the program will be expanded to start adding current inmates at Oakhill Correctional Institution in Oregon, Wis.

“We plan to provide help for people close to their release date,” Olingy said.

She said there are six law students enrolled in the summer clinic, but the program has drawn as many as 14 in previous years.

In fact, after Olingy taught a course on American criminal sanction at Justus Liebig Universitat in Giessen, Germany, some law students participated in the Remington Center’s Legal Assistance to Institutionalized Persons Project (LAIP).

Ultimately, Olingy would like to see more law schools around the country incorporate some form of the clinical program into their curriculum.

“From a social science point of view, it could result in a lot of good research information about re-entry,” she said. “It’s a good way to test what works and what doesn’t.”

In addition to launching CSLAP, Olingy has emphasized her “student education first” philosophy through the Wisconsin Veterans Intervention Program and the Federal Institution Program at the federal prison in Oxford, Wis.

Prior to joining the Remington Center at UW Law School in 1988, Olingy spent three years as a trial attorney in the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington.

She initially spent time prosecuting white-collar fraud cases with multi-state connections and later worked with federal agencies regarding jurisdictional issues and international crimes.

To read all of the Women in the Law profiles, click here