Prisoners' Legal Services (PLS)

In june of 2023, pls filed a class action lawsuit (does 1-3 v. parole board) against the parole board for discriminating against individuals with mental illness or intellectual disabilities in all aspects of the parole process. The case seeks to require the board to provide a host of accommodations including, where appropriate, a professional evaluation of how the disability may influence the person's behavior, and assistance in locating community supports and Services that might allow them to live successfully in the community. In june of 2023, the court approved a settlement in battle v. sheriff, bristol county that, among other things, requires reforms to prevent the placement of prisoners with mental illness in solitary confinement; policies to take mental illness into account in the disciplinary process; and improvements in mental health care. The settlement also calls for appointment of an independent settlement monitor to monitor compliance. Pls continued the litigation of cheeks v parole board, a suit brought by ten individuals who had been successfully on parole for many years challenging the board's failure to implement the law allowing it to terminate parole supervision. In response to the suit, the board issued regulations in december of 2022 that set up a process for people to apply for early termination and established criteria for the board to use in making termination decisions. The court stayed the litigation to allow the board time to implement the new regulations. Pls brought the litigation in minich v. spencer to a successful conclusion. Minich was a class action for damages that challenged the excessive and abusive use of seclusion and restraint at bridgewater state hospital. We settled the case for $1.5 million dollars and have now distributed the settlement awards, ranging from $3,000 to $80,000 to each class member. Pls continued its litigation in does 1-10 v. commissioner on behalf of men who have not been convicted or charged with any crime but who have been civilly committed to a Correctional facility solely because they need inpatient treatment for an alcohol or substance use disorder. The court rejected the contention that section 35 is facially unconstitutional, but only because it ruled the statute would be constitutional if the state created a sufficient number of community treatment beds to make incarceration unnecessary. Pls continued its class action litigation in foster v. commissioner by filing a motion for summary judgment asking the court to order doc to comply with a recent law, which was enacted by the legislature over the governor's veto, that requires doc to use various release mechanisms to reduce the prison population, consistent with public safety. Pls settled a case (converse v. doc) for substantial damages brought by a man with severe mental illness and cognitive disabilities who suffered physical and emotional injury as a result of an assault by Correctional officers while he was on a mental health watch. Pls also has ongoing litigation challenging doc's treatment of prisoners who are deaf or hard of hearing, implementation of medical parole, restrictive visiting policies, widespread use of excessive force, particularly force that targets black and latinx individuals, as well as cases against the county jails. A new legislative session began in january 2023 and runs through july 2024. We worked with community partners, clients, and legislators to file a number of important bills that would improve conditions for incarcerated people, including bills to (1) create an oversight office focused on addressing structural racism in the prison system (2) establish free telephone and email communication for incarcerated people and their families (3) create baseline human rights standards that would end solitary confinement and create universal access to programming and education (4) increase access to medical parole (5) end incarcerated solely for substance use disorder (6) reform the parole system (7) end life without parole and other extreme sentences (8) increase media access and records access (9) establish a five year moratorium on prison and jail construction (10) end ice detention (11) increase access to visitation.free phone calls passed through the legislature at the end of the last legislative session but were vetoed by the governor. This session we successfully advocated for inclusion in the fy 2024 budget.