Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project

The Prison Legal Assistance Project (PLAP) is a student practice organization at Harvard Law School in which students represent people incarcerated in Massachusetts prisons. PLAP's mission is to empower people incarcerated in Massachusetts; to train law students in client-based advocacy and instill in them a commitment to the public interest and social justice; and to participate in conversations about incarceration and engage in efforts to promote the rights of incarcerated people. PLAP student attorneys represent clients charged with violating prison regulations at disciplinary hearings and those facing parole revocation or rescission and second-degree life sentence hearings before the Massachusetts Parole Board. Student attorneys also provide incarcerated people with assistance in matters ranging from civil rights violations to confiscated property. They handle neither criminal nor civil court cases and are unable to assist people incarcerated outside the state of Massachusetts. For more information about Student Practice Organizations and Clinical Programs at Harvard Law School, please visit their website.