Associate prisoner with case of negligence before court (7)
I believe the answer is:
connect
'associate' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'prisoner with case of negligence before court' is the wordplay.
'prisoner' becomes 'con' (abbreviation for 'convict').
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'case of' suggests removing the centre (outsides of).
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'court' becomes 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names).
'negligence' with its centre taken out is 'ne'.
'con'+'ne'+'ct'='CONNECT'
(Other definitions for connect that I've seen before include "Bring together" , "Join - link" , "Link together" .)