Prisoners' Legal Services of New York

PLS' mission is to provide high quality, effective legal representation and assistance to indigent prisoners, to help them to secure their civil and human rights, and to advocate for humane prisons and for a more humane criminal justice system. PLS is presently operating four regional offices with twelve attorneys and six paralegals on staff, providing services to the 60,000 inmates confined in seventy New York State prisons. PLS was established in 1976 and has been providing civil legal services to prisoners in New York State prisons since that time. Each year we receive and respond to thousands of requests for assistance from prisoners on issues surrounding their conditions of confinement. PLS investigates complaints regarding access to court, excessive force, jail and sentencing issues, disciplinary hearings, religious expression, failure to protect, medical and mental health care and numerous other issues associated with conditions of confinement. Primarily because of a lack of resources, there are many categories of cases which PLS cannot handle. They include, criminal conviction challenges, immigration, bankruptcy, child custody and termination, non-prison related tort claims, governmental benefits and divorce. Before any case is accepted it must be evaluated on the basis of three criteria 1) the importance of the claim; 2) the likelihood of success given the applicable law and the available evidence; and 3) the amount of staff time and resources to complete the case.