Brittany Glidden
Associate Clinical Professor of Law UC Hastings College of the Law
UC Hastings College of the Law
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Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Nominated by DU Law’s Dean Katz for Super Lawyers Pro Bono Award
2011
Board Member, Colorado Prison Law Project, Denver, CO
2010 - 2013
Recipient, 2011 PILG Award for Excellence in Public Service
Selected by student vote, 2011
Education
Stanford University
B.A.
Human Biology; Minor in Political Science
1997
Honorary Degree from Children and Society Curriculum
Teaching Assistant to Ramon Saldívar, Comparative American Urban Cultures
New York University School of Law
J.D.
Law
2002
Executive Editor, Review of Law & Social Change
Teaching Assistant for Professor Helen Scott, Contract Law
Public Interest Law Foundation Grant Recipient
Affiliations
- Bar Admission : California Northern District of California
- Society of American Law Teachers
- Association of American Law Schools
- Clinical Legal Education Association
- Bar Association of San Francisco
Media Appearances
After Years in Solitary, a Mentally Ill Prisoner’s Day in Court
Mother Jones
2012-04-30
Testing a new legal strategy, Troy Anderson's lawyers will argue that his isolation violates federal disability law....There is "not much precedent to predict how the court will decide," says DU visiting professor Brittany Glidden, who leads a team of law students on the case. But so far, the suit has survived the state's efforts to have it dismissed....
Mentally Ill Inmate Sues Department Of Corrections
Colorado Public Radio
2010-06-29
Troy Anderson hasn't seen the sun in ten years. Since 2000,he's been in solitary confinement--in an 8 by 12 foot cell in Colorado's highest security prison. And he's mentally ill. Now, with legal assistance from students and lawyers from the University of Denver School of Law, Anderson is suing the Colorado Department of Corrections. According to the lawsuit, his case adds up to cruel and unusual punishment. The suit also raises questions about the use of solitary confinement--and about treatment for mentally ill inmates. Department officials wouldn't talk to us for this story. Brittany Glidden is the Civil Rights Fellow at DU's Student Law Office. She's supervising the case and she spoke with Ryan Warner.
“Dying to Live”: Hunger Strike in Wisconsin Prison Protests Indefinite Solitary Confinement
Solitary Watch
He is also Laura Rovner’s client. Rovner, teaching fellow Brittany Glidden, and a group of student attorneys from DU’s Civil Rights Clinic have filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Denver, arguing that Silverstein’s 84 square feet of utter and permanent isolation violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, as well as its guarantee of due process. The suit is just one of several brought by the clinic on behalf of various inmates at ADX and at the nearby state supermax prison. Along with a small handful of other cases in Colorado and around the country, the work of DU’s Civil Rights Clinic represents the leading edge of a legal challenge to solitary confinement. As such, it has the potential to affect the lives of the 100,000 or more prisoners who are held in some form of solitary on any given day in prisons across the United States...
Supermax inmate suing to lessen solitary confinement
The Denver Post
2011-04-28
In the lawsuit, attorneys Brittany Glidden and Laura Rovner and DU law students Erica Day and Nick Catanzarite are asking U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer to allow Silverstein regular and meaningful human contact — direct, face-to-face contact in which he is not behind glass, bars or metal barriers...
Colorado prison inmate wins right to outdoor exercise
The Denver Post
2012-09-03
“We’re hopeful the ruling will be the catalyst … to change that inhumane practice,” DU law professor Brittany Glidden, one of the faculty advisers, said...
Judge lets DU law students’ suit to help Supermax inmate go forward
The Denver Post
2010-03-24
“We believe it’s a human-rights issue, not to be isolated from other people for such an extended period of time,” said Brittany Glidden, a lawyer and DU fellow who is co-teaching the class with professor Laura Rovner. “Research indicates that isolating people with no human contact for long periods of time is physically and psychologically painful.”...
Event Appearances
Guest Speaker, Representing Incarcerated Individuals
University of California Hastings College of the Law San Francisco, CA.
2007-01-01
Presenter, Necessary Suffering?: An Analysis of the Use of Governmental Interest in Eighth Amendment Caselaw
Clinical Law Review Writers' Workshop New York, NY.
2010-10-01
Presenter, Punishment Theory and the Eighth Amendment Conditions of Confinement Jurisprudence
DU Faculty Development Series Denver, CO.
2011-03-09
Guest Lecturer, Prisons and Prisoners in the United States
Poverty Law Seminar Golden Gate University School of Law, San Francisco, CA.
2012-03-28
Panelist, Feeback: To Give and How to Give
Externship Supervisor Training UC Berkeley School of Law, Berkeley, CA.
2015-11-10
Selected Articles
Requiring the State to Justify Supermax Confinement for Mentally III Prisoners: A Disability Discrimination Approach
Denver University Law Review2012
The Eighth Amendment has long served as the traditional legal vehicle for challenging prison conditions, including long-term isolation or “supermax” confinement. As described by Hafemeister and George in their article, The Ninth Circle of Hell: An Eighth Amendment Analysis of Imposing Prolonged Supermax Solitary Confinement on Inmates with a Mental Illness, some prisoners with mental illness have prevailed in Eighth Amendment challenges to prolonged isolation...
Necessary Suffering: Weighing Government and Prisoner Interests in Determining What Is Cruel and Unusual
American Criminal Law Review2012
Imagine that a man is held in solitary confinement for thirty years. For three decades he eats every meal alone in his cell, "exercises" by himself in a cage outside, and is only touched when handcuffs are placed on him. As a result of the prolonged isolation he suffers mental ...
When the State is Silent: An Analysis of AEDPA's Adjudication Requirement
NYU Review of Law and Social Change2001
Ernest Sutton Bell was convicted of sexual misconduct following a closed criminal trial. Despite Supreme Court precedent that on-the-record findings as to the necessity of closing a court proceeding are required before doing so and a strong presumption that defendants ...
