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Immersive Course Places Clinical Psychology Students in Jails and on the Witness Stand

At ¸£Àû¼§, members of the faculty, staff and student body often come together to support students who are preparing to enter the workforce through experiential learning. One such case is Mary Conroy’s forensic assessment course.

Dedicated to providing the most in-depth training and advancing the fields of clinical and forensic psychology, Conroy has engaged in forensic work, which she integrates into the PhD training program early in their educational journey. This unique feature draws in aspiring clinical psychologists seeking to deepen their understanding of the impact forensic psychology has in the justice system.

One such student is Frances Eby. After earning her master’s in forensic psychology in North Dakota in 2021, she worked in state agencies such as the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. “I picked Sam because I wanted that expertise and forensic training really early on," Eby said.

That training places Eby and her peers in clinical settings administering psychological evaluations but also sees them entering jails to participate in court-ordered evaluations with a credentialed supervisor. In these evaluations, students are tasked with assisting in assessing defendants’ competency to stand trial and sanity at the time of the offense.

“In the United States, we have a competency crisis where we do not have enough practitioners that are able to do these evaluations because they’re pretty specific and specialized,” Eby said. “So, when a question has been raised about the competency of a defendant, the process stops for them until an evaluation can be completed.”

Conroy and her students are chipping away at the competency crisis by conducting the assessments. Conroy supervises these evaluations and the subsequent reports, which are submitted to the courts.

This leads to the next level of immersion in the course, holding a mock trial where students defend the findings in one of the reports they have participated in over the course of the semester. This involves a collaborative effort between Conroy, Gene Roberts, associate dean of students and director of Student Legal and Mediation Services and the Texas Special Prosecution Unit (TSPU).

At the end of the semester, Eby and her peers spend two evenings in the Hazel B. Kerper Courtroom, undergoing direct examination by their peers and cross-examination by Roberts and the TSPU lawyers. All of this is done before a live audience including other psychology students, TSPU staff members and student ambassadors from the Center for Law, Engagement and Politics (LEAP). This stress test is designed to prepare students to serve as expert witnesses in court, training them to explain their diagnoses and defend their professional opinions while facing the intense scrutiny of an attorney.

Although all reports are sanitized, “we want to make the experience as realistic as possible in all other circumstances,” Conroy said.

One of the LEAP ambassadors, Michelle Cardenas, relayed her experience sitting in on the direct and cross-examinations of the doctoral candidates on  

“At first, many of us were intrigued just to be part of something so different from our usual experiences,” Cardenas said. “We expected it to be interesting and informative, but we quickly realized it was much more than that. It was a serious and highly structured simulation that gave us a real look into how psychological expertise is challenged in legal settings.”

And Eby and the other future clinical psychologists faced those challenges head-on with composure, maintaining their status as unbiased experts there to present their findings in accordance with state law. 

For Cardenas, the cross-examination was a stand-out moment for the doctoral students, as they were grilled by Roberts and county attorneys on not just their diagnosis and justification for it, but also their professional publications, academic background and even social media presence. Despite the pressure, the students kept their composure and withstood the needling that many attorneys use to try and discredit expert witnesses.

Once the last upcoming expert left the stand, the PhD students, LEAP Ambassadors, Roberts and TSPU staff used the end of their time to debrief on their performance. Roberts and the visitors from TSPU provided helpful insights, helping the students gain a deeper understanding of the tactics they may encounter in their professional careers.

“It was really good as a student to understand where my gaps were in regard to my expertise so I can bolster my knowledge in those areas,” Eby said. “It was also great practice in maintaining neutrality."