Our mission is to challenge the carceral system through litigation, advocacy, client counseling, partnership with impacted individuals and communities, and outreach to policymakers and the public in order to promote the human rights of incarcerated persons and end harmful confinement. Prisoners' Legal Services has a very small staff.
The typical incarcerated person to lawyer ratio at PLS is over 1,500 to one. Therefore, while PLS responds to requests for advice and guidance from incarcerated people and their families on issues, our work is focused on five key priorities: Healthcare, Conditions of Confinement, Solitary Confinement, Brutality, and Racial Equity in Corrections.
The typical incarcerated person to lawyer ratio at PLS is over 1,500 to one. Therefore, while PLS responds to requests for advice and guidance from incarcerated people and their families on issues, our work is focused on five key priorities: Healthcare, Conditions of Confinement, Solitary Confinement, Brutality, and Racial Equity in Corrections.
Services
Our Team
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We are a small team of individuals determined to ensure the protection of the civil rights of those incarcerated. PLS is based in downtown Boston and serves the entirety of Massachusetts. We work to provide advocacy for individuals to ensure that their legally guaranteed rights are not violated by the state.
What We Do
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Prisoners' Legal Services provides legal representation and administrative advocacy in civil (non-criminal) matters related to prisoners' treatment in Massachusetts prisons and jails, and upon release on parole. Lengthy or arbitrary isolation or segregation, especially if the person is suffering from mental illness.
Join Our Team
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PLS is seeking a full-time staff attorney.
Responsibilities include all phases of affirmative litigation concerning prison and jail conditions, including factual investigation, discovery, document review, written and oral advocacy, settlement and trial practice, and enforcement and compliance monitoring; client representation and advocacy with prisons, jails, and other state agencies; visits to, telephone contact, and correspondence with clients; and policy advocacy on issues affecting incarcerated persons.
Responsibilities include all phases of affirmative litigation concerning prison and jail conditions, including factual investigation, discovery, document review, written and oral advocacy, settlement and trial practice, and enforcement and compliance monitoring; client representation and advocacy with prisons, jails, and other state agencies; visits to, telephone contact, and correspondence with clients; and policy advocacy on issues affecting incarcerated persons.
Advocacy
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A large part of the services undertaken by PLS staff includes individual client advocacy.
Individual intake advocacy often has a major impact on our clients in achieving much-needed relief, such as access to medical services, mental health treatment, surgery, chemotherapy, or hormone treatment for transgender individuals; access to programming that might satisfy a parole requirement; removal from solitary confinement; and extensive advice to incarcerated individuals who file cases pro se.
Individual intake advocacy often has a major impact on our clients in achieving much-needed relief, such as access to medical services, mental health treatment, surgery, chemotherapy, or hormone treatment for transgender individuals; access to programming that might satisfy a parole requirement; removal from solitary confinement; and extensive advice to incarcerated individuals who file cases pro se.
Community Engagement
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Prisoners' Legal Services has a longstanding history of collaborating with community partners and participating in community efforts in order to achieve reform. It is our philosophy that the people most qualified to speak about the experience of incarceration are those directly affected by it, and to that end, we participate in as many groups as possible that center the voices of the currently and formerly incarcerated.
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