News
By: Marty Strauss ('23)
Substance use disorder is a widespread yet incredibly personal hardship. It affects countless people across the world, but in many different ways along lines such as race and class, and along varying bonds of family and friendship. Recovery, it follows, is also a deeply personal endeavor.
Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project
2022 Summer Student Attorney Program
The Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project (PLAP) is now accepting applications for its 2022 Summer Student Attorney Program.
Why work at PLAP this summer? Here are just a few reasons:
At PLAP, you will take the lead on your own cases and directly
By: Joel Thompson
The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team has published a follow-up story to its detailed account of the tactics used by Department of Correction officials and officers to “restore order” at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, in the weeks after an assault by multiple prisoners on correctional officers in one housing
By: Megan Corrigan (’22) & Jack Lubin (’22)
Our client is a community organizer, and he is great at what he does. For the past 10 years, he has organized successful celebrations for Black History Month, Kwanzaa, and Juneteenth, as well as information sessions about knowing your legislators and more.
On March 22, students from Harvard PLAP won a ruling from the Massachusetts Appeals Court that will improve access to courts for incarcerated people challenging the discipline that is meted out against them. The Appeals Court held that the sixty-day statute of limitations for such challenges runs from the date that the Department of Correction (DOC) serves its final decision
Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project
2021 Summer Student Attorney Program
The Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project (PLAP) is now accepting applications for its 2021 Summer Student Attorney Program.
Why work at PLAP this summer? Here are just a few reasons:
At PLAP, you will take the lead on your own cases and directly
On February 5, 2021, PLAP Policy Directors Joan Steffen and Sheridan Cunningham submitted written testimony on proposed changes to the regulations governing mail procedures in Massachusetts prisons, 103 CMR 481. Joan also provided oral testimony at a public hearing on January 29, 2021.
Sheridan and Joan began by emphasizing PLAP’s familiarity
By: Joel Thompson, Joan Steffen, Marta Canneri, and Will Ossoff
On March 27, 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act, which offered crucial relief to American families struggling with the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six months later, people in prison and jail can finally receive that relief as well.
On September 16, PLAP Policy Directors Sheridan Cunningham and Joan Steffen submitted written testimony to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) on proposed revisions to the regulations governing medical parole, 501 CMR 17.00. Sheridan also provided oral testimony in a Public Hearing held by EOPSS on
For over 50 years, PLAP members have fought on behalf of people incarcerated in Massachusetts prisons. Our members continue to virtually represent clients in disciplinary hearings and parole hearings.
We seek to empower people incarcerated in Massachusetts prisons; to train our community in client-based advocacy and instill a commitment to public
On Monday March 9, PLAP hosted a discussion about conditions at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center (SBCC) and throughout the Massachusetts prison system. The discussion was moderated by PLAP Liaison Alexis Yeboah-Kodie (JD ’21) and featured Elizabeth Matos, Executive Director of Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts; Jurrell Laronal, an abolitionist and community
PLAP Student Attorney Matthew Disler (J.D. '21) provides a first-hand account of his experience representing a client in a disciplinary hearing this past fall. Matthew took the case with the assistance of Kaitlyn Gerber (J.D. '19) and Sadie Hillier (J.D. '20).
In 2018, guards woke a man incarcerated in
The Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project (PLAP) is now accepting applications for its 2020 Summer Student Attorney Program.
Why work at PLAP this summer? Here are just a few reasons:
• At PLAP, you will take the lead on your own cases and directly represent clients in prison disciplinary, parole, and classification
Massachusetts State Senator Jamie Eldridge recently organized a legislative press conference on a new criminal justice reform bill that he has proposed. The bill would provide additional protections to those who are placed in solitary confinement, such as ensuring placement review hearings for anyone who is placed in segregated
The UCLA Prison Law and Policy Program has released its 2020 Summer Job Search Guide with information about organizations and offices around the country who work on behalf of incarcerated people and who are looking for summer interns.
The Prison Law and Policy Program also hosts the Prison Law JD listserv for current law
If you’re a new student interesting in joining PLAP, please join us at one of our two new member trainings this week! We'll provide more information about PLAP's mission and discuss opportunities to get involved, including direct representation of incarcerated people in disciplinary and parole hearings, as well as
Wednesday, April 17th is the Harvard Women’s Law Association’s Shatter the Ceiling Awards ceremony. Each spring, the WLA recognizes the people who represent the gold standard for promoting inclusiveness and equality, both at Harvard Law School and beyond.
Shanell Lavery, program manager of the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project (PLAP), is
The Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project (PLAP) is now accepting applications for its 2019 Summer Student Attorney Program.
Why work at PLAP this summer? Here are just a few reasons:
• At PLAP, you will take the lead on your own cases and directly represent clients in prison disciplinary, parole, and classification
The UCLA Prison Law and Policy Program has released its 2019 Summer Job Search Guide with information about organizations and offices around the country who do prisoners’ rights work and who are looking for summer interns.
The Prison Law and Policy Program also hosts the Prison Law JD listserv for current law students and recent
The Harvard Gazette featured three PLAPers—Milo Inglehart, Megan Barnes, and Jake Meiseles—in an article about Harvard Law School’s capital punishment clinic. Meiseles, Barnes, and Inglehart took Professor Carol Steiker’s Capital Punishment Clinic as 2Ls during their January term. In the article, they describe the problematic and horrific use of the