Title: A Student’s Acts of Care in the Criminal Justice System

Elizabeth Esteves (C’27) spent a chunk of her summer in a courthouse. It was trial by fire.

Most days at the District Court of Maryland in Rockville, Esteves trailed an attorney as he navigated petty theft or traffic violation cases. They averaged 15 cases a day. 

Esteves didn’t just shadow, though. She also met with clients to brief them, help explain their charges and translate legalese — language she picked up along the way. 

“The district court is super, super fast,” she said. “As much as the attorneys would like to sit down and explain everything to you, they don’t have the capacity, so you just have to bite the bullet and take in as much as you can.”

Esteves’ internship at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender is her latest immersion in the justice system, a topic she’s been unraveling since her early days at Georgetown. Along the way, she’s figured out little ways to impact people’s lives, from lending a helping hand in an austere courtroom to teaching a formerly incarcerated client how to create a resume.

“Being only 21, it doesn’t seem like you can do that much, but you actually can when you think of how small things can be very impactful for people who never had that experience or exposure.”

Law and Care at Georgetown

Law was not on Esteves’ radar when she arrived at Georgetown in 2023.

She began taking sociology and women’s and gender studies courses in the College of Arts & Sciences, and noticed overlaps with justice and the law. After her first year, Esteves enrolled in Georgetown’s Summer Institute in Law & Society, which offers courses and experiential learning for undergraduates interested in law.

Returning that fall, she took Marc Howard’s sought-after Prisons & Punishments course.

“It was the first year that we had a returning citizen as a teaching assistant instead of a graduate student,” she said. “Obviously, the class was great, but you learned a lot of unspoken things you can only hear from lived experience in our discussion sections. So I really, really liked that class, but especially from the perspective of someone who has experienced the system.”

Esteves continued to take courses about incarceration and then interned for the Georgetown Prisons and Justice Initiative’s paralegal program, which prepares returning citizens for careers in law. The experience solidified her interest in prison reform. And she began seeing ways she could make a difference on an individual level, like teaching returning citizens to use a printer for the first time or helping someone pick out an outfit for a job interview. 

“Some people had never worn professional clothing, like a full suit. When you’re helping people try on blazers and dresses, you can just see their confidence,” she said. “That element of care I really like and gravitate toward.”

Making a Big Difference

Esteves is majoring in women’s and gender studies and sociology with a minor in law, justice and society. As part of her minor, she spent a semester living and studying on the Capitol Campus through the university’s Capitol Applied Learning Labs (CALL) program. 

The program allowed Esteves the space and time to focus on professional development and her future in law. 

“In just those few months, I’ve advanced a lot professionally,” she said. “I’ve made a lot of great connections, networked and exposed myself to more organizations. It was a great experience for me to hone in and focus on myself and what I wanted to do.”

A staff member in CALL encouraged her to apply to the Public Defenders’ Office internship, and she received an Idol Family Fellowship from the CALL, which helps support her during the unpaid internship. 

At the Public Defender’s Office, she has gained experience working for both district and circuit court attorneys. She’s learned more of the ins and outs of the courtroom, and has even begun writing legal memos and analyses.

“I’ve learned a lot indirectly from observation,” she said. “I feel like I’m already super comfortable talking about the terminology and explaining things to clients that I didn’t even know before two months ago.”

Through the internship, Esteves has realized she wants to work on broader change and reform to impact the systemic issues she noticed at the individual level. She is also interested in working more with children and families who are impacted by incarceration.

This fall, Esteves will join Georgetown Law’s Investigative Internship Program, where she’ll work within three law clinics on pre-trial preparations. 

As she approaches her senior year, she only wishes she had more time, she said.

“I’m sad I only have one year left,” she said. “There are so many things I wish I could have done, classes I wish I could take. … But it just makes me more appreciative of what I was able to do in my time at Georgetown so far,” she said.

In the meantime, she plans to keep learning.