Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, Inc. (MCLS)

Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, Inc. (MCLS)
(Prisoners' Legal Services)


10 Winthrop Square, 3rd Floor
Boston, MA 02110
Phone: (617) 482-2773
Fax: (617) 451-6383
Email: lwalker@plsma.org



According to its annual report, the "Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services is a private, nonprofit corporation which provides free legal assistance to men and women in Massachusetts correctional facilities." Originally established in 1972 as the Prisoners' Rights Project, the MCLS is almost exclusively funded by the Commonwealth's Supreme Judicial Court.

Like most programs operating on behalf of inmates, the MCLS has 5 staff attorneys, 2 student interns, and approximately 60 volunteer attorneys that receive many more requests for legal representation than they can handle. Hence, in selecting cases for direct representation in the state's trial courts, MCLS gives priority to two types: "(1) inmates with complaints about serious civil rights violations such as denial of adequate medical care, threats to their lives or safety; and (2) inmates serving life sentences who wish to challenge their sentences or convictions and who appear to have meritorious claims."

In cooperation with other organizations, including the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Aid to Incarcerated Mothers, the Boston Bar Association, and Massachusetts Citizens Against the Restoration of the Death Penalty, the MCLS has brought numerous cases of precedent-setting value to the Massachusetts high court. In 1981, for example, the MCLS successfully challenged use of the death penalty. The resulting opinion of the state's high court, in fact, "put the Commonwealth in the unique position of being the only state in which the death penalty is currently unlawful [and] violative of the state constitution." In other cases, the MCLS has challenged strip searches, "the summary banishment of visitors from seeing their incarcerated friends and family members in maximum security prison conditions," and out-of-state transfers.

In addition to its work as a direct sponsor of litigation at the state trial court level, MCLS files amicus curiae briefs in appellate courts, typically in conjunction with other organizations, including the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union and the Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. Its major reason for participating as a friend of the court is "presentation of institutional 'real world' experience with a legal issue or setting in the prison."

Because MCLS can litigate only a minute proportion of the more than 1,600 requests for assistance it receives each year, its staffers have developed other forms of assistance. For example, MCLS will (1) provide limited assistance or advice through letters, (2) send inmates legal manuals covering a range of topics of interest, and (3) refer inmates to private bar associations and other agencies. According to its own publications, in fact, "the network of contacts MCLS staff have established with other public and private law offices has resulted in the creation of an effective referral system for inmates."