Prison Law Office

Being a prisoner does not mean that you have lost all your rights which are safeguarded by the constitution. It only means that some of them are unavailable to you or are restricted specifically because you have been convicted of a crime and the restriction of certain rights is the punishment. In fact, if there is anyone at all who is in need of more assistance in the protection of their constitutional rights, it is the prisoner, because he is in a position where he might easily fall prey to the arbitrariness of certain elements of the system that holds him captive.

Prison Law Office provides protection for California prisoners. The Prison Law Office strives to improve the living conditions of California state prisoners by providing free legal services to inmates or their families.

Representing individual prisoners, the Prison Law Office engages in class action and other impact litigation. They also educate the public about prison conditions and provide technical assistance to attorneys throughout the country.

History of Prison Law Office

As a nonprofit public interest law firm, the Prison Law Office boasts of over 25 years of experience in its respective practice areas. Located just outside the gates of San Quentin, the Prison Law Office has been in the forefront of legal efforts to enforce the Constitution and other laws inside the walls of California’s prisons.

The Prison Law Office actually has only a small staff of attorneys, but all of them are experienced in constitutional law, particularly the rights of prisoners. They also have a team of personnel who serve as support team, helping the attorneys as they represent individual prisoners and engage in class action and other impact litigation. Other than that, the Prison Law Office, as mentioned earlier, help educate the public about conditions inside prisons and offer technical assistance to attorneys throughout the country.

The Prison Law Office most other cases involving constitutional rights. However, as a rule, their attorneys do not usually handle criminal appeals or habeas corpus petitions challenging criminal convictions.

The prisons in the state of California remain overcrowded to the point that it is quite dangerous not only for the prisoners but the prison personnel as well. Almost 200 percent of the prison’s design capacity is occupied as over 166,000 prisoners are crammed into 33 institutions. Because of this, basic necessities of life, such as medical and mental health care, are lacking. Thus, prisoners with disabilities are not recognized as disabled, and many are not provided reasonable accommodations as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Prison Law Office hopes to solve this pervasive problem through both individual and impact litigation. They aim to change many of the state’s Department of Corrections policies and practices. This they do to alleviate many of the cruel and unusual conditions that have been inflicted upon tens of thousands of state prisoners.

What They Do

The Prison Law Office offers its legal services for free throughout the California state, mostly to California prisoners, but usually including California state parolees. While their assistance can be limited, when it comes to cases regarding conditions of confinement, the firm tries to give their all.