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Legal resources for people in prison in Massachusetts

Prisoners' Legal Services

50 Federal St.

4th Fl.

Boston, MA 02110-2585

http://plsma.org

(617) 451-6383 (Fax)

(617) 482-2773 (Main)


Serves: MA


Focus area/description: 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 prisoner to lawyer ratio at PLS is over 3,000 to one. Therefore, while PLS responds to requests for advice and guidance from prisoners and their families on many issues, our work is focused on five key priorities critical to our clients:

Health Care
Staff Assaults
Conditions of Confinement
Solitary Confinement
Racial Equity in Corrections

PLS has a toll free speed dial number accessible to all state prisoners on the PIN system: *9004#. County prisoners must call collect on (617) 482-4124.

Prisoners' Legal Services confirmed this listing on June 15, 2023.


These national self-help guides may be useful to people in prison in Massachusetts:

The Jailhouse Lawyers Manual is a free guide to legal rights and procedures designed for people in prison. It contains nine sections designed to help incarcerated people learn about their rights, file lawsuits in both state and federal court, attack their conviction or sentence, and address the conditions of their imprisonment. It also contains information about the rights of incarcerated people related to health, safety, religious freedom, and more. We suggest accessing the online version of the manual and mailing the relevant chapters to your incarcerated loved one.

The Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook is a free resource for people in prison who want to file a federal lawsuit addressing poor conditions in prison or abuse by prison staff. This guide will not help challenge convictions or sentences or provide guidance on actions in state courts. It also has 14 appendices that provide sample complaints, legal forms, and guidance on how to reach out to journalists, among other topics. You can download relevant chapters of the handbook and mail them to your incarcerated loved one or request to have a copy mailed to them.

A challenge to our colleagues:

We built the internet's first always-up-to-date list of legal services for incarcerated people. Can you make a similar list for a different kind of resource?

Problem: There are too many outdated resource lists floating around.

Our Solution: Have one resource list that one organization checks each year.

Our Method: Inspired by the Cincinnati Books for Prisoners group, we made a list of every legal services organization on every resource list we could find. Then we send a letter by snail mail to each organization each year asking them to confirm/update their listing. If they respond, we include them on the site for the next 365 days. All the organization needs to do is to sign the form we send them and mail it back in the enclosed envelope. If they don't respond, we keep them on our mailing list and try again next year.

This way, any incarcerated person using the list can be assured that the organization they are writing to recently did exist and was responding to mail. And if an organization fails to respond for some reason (staff turnover, postal problems, the dog ate our letter, etc.) they get another chance next year.

It's a win for everyone. We've built a database for legal services. What list can your organization edit?



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