PLS has five offices across New York State in close proximity to New York’s 52 prisons.
Staffed by lawyers with decades of experience in constitutional, civil rights, corrections and administrative law.
Trusted and respected by our clients, their families and loved ones based on decades of investigation, advocacy, litigation, and education on prison issues.
Created by New York State in response to the Attica uprising, PLS is an independent, non-profit legal services organization representing incarcerated New Yorkers on conditions of confinement.

Complaints of brutality, mistreatment and abuse; failure to provide adequate medical and mental health care; improper disciplinary hearings; denial of educational and vocational programming; wrongful sentence and jail time computations; and suspension or termination of visitation rights.
For release from solitary confinement, restoration of good time, adequate medical and mental health treatment, proper certification of jail time credit, and appropriate education and programming.
For better living conditions, protection of civil and human rights and a pathway to citizenship.
Providing incarcerated individuals with the tools needed to safeguard their civil and human rights and successfully reintegrate into their communities upon release.
About Us
The Number One Attica Reform: PLS
…following the 1971 Attica uprising to ensure that the voices of incarcerated New Yorkers are heard.
…to indigent individuals confined in New York State prisons.
…and advocate for a more humane criminal justice system.
including:
- the excessive use of force;
- solitary confinement;
- disciplinary hearings;
- access to education, programming and medical and mental health care;
- jail time credit and sentence computation;
- child custody and support and family visitation; and
- immigration and deportation defense.
PLS IN NUMBERS
1
Offices
1
Experts working
1
Practice areas
1
Specialized Programs
1
+
Requests for assitance per year
Information for Incarcerated Individuals and their loved ones
Testimonials
One minute I am turning in an essay on Shakespeare's Macbeth, and the next I am facing disciplinary charges. What's on the line? My future as a Bard College student and my passion for being a youth counselor here in prison.
Then I was moved to a prison far away from the Bard BPI college.
PLS assured me they would help.
PLS was able to get the charges reversed and expunged from my record. Then, despite the COVID pandemic, PLS continued to fight for my return to Bard College. I am grateful and indebted to PLS for firmly having my back. I can now move forward with my positive rehabilitation and continue my journey of a higher education degree under Bard's amazing program. My aspiration to counsel incarcerated youth can again be fulfilled. May those in need of a savior be as lucky as I was to have PLS.
Then I was moved to a prison far away from the Bard BPI college.
PLS assured me they would help.
PLS was able to get the charges reversed and expunged from my record. Then, despite the COVID pandemic, PLS continued to fight for my return to Bard College. I am grateful and indebted to PLS for firmly having my back. I can now move forward with my positive rehabilitation and continue my journey of a higher education degree under Bard's amazing program. My aspiration to counsel incarcerated youth can again be fulfilled. May those in need of a savior be as lucky as I was to have PLS.

My name is Jerome Mack and I’d just like to say PLS was able to have my disciplinary hearing reversed and expunged. My experience with PLS was excellent. I received competent, effective, and dedicated legal representation. I received a lawyer who listened to what I had to say, worked with me, and stayed diligent through obstacles. PLS services were truly a blessing, and I’ll be forever grateful.

My teeth were rotting. My bridge was broken and cut my mouth. I was in pain. I could not chew my food and the prison would not let me eat my meals slowly in my cell. All I could eat was peanut butter sandwiches and soup I had to buy with my own money from the commissary. Then, after three years of agony, PLS helped me. The rotting teeth were pulled. My gums were treated. A dentist who wanted my dentures perfect had them fitted six times. She waxed them so they shined! I could finally chew again. I could smile. I felt better about myself. I went back to my cell feeling like a new man in my top of the line dentures. Now I walk around prison with a smile as big as the Kool Aid guy.

I was wrongfully removed from Work Release. Thankfully PLSNY was right there to save the day. They fought harder for me than anyone else has. I always received prompt communication, replies, updates, clarity, understanding of where the process was at and encouragement to stay strong, and focused. I received a letter from PLS letting me know that they were writing letters to the Commissioner, deputy Commissioner, and their attorney and asking for the immediate reinstatement of my participation in the temporary release program. Fourteen days later I received a letter from Albany/Central office stating that after many long months it was determined that I should be reinstated to Work Release. While I was waiting for the decision on Work Release, my Good Time was taken away. PLS had to also fight tooth and nail to have my good time restored. So, I'm most appreciative for the diligent, steadfast, and Uber zealous litigation on behalf of me by Prisoners' Legal Services. Without them... I would not have come home until my maximum expiration date. Thank you PLSNY staff. I owe you the world!

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Programs
Practice Areas
Please note that staffing and resources impact our ability to accept cases. In addition, each case requires a legal merit assessment. Because of these limitations, the below list is not a guarantee that all requests for assistance within our practice area will be accepted.
Access to Courts
Access to Records
Child Support
Child Visitation
Disability Rights
Disciplinary Hearings
Discrimination
Early Release
• temporary release
• merit time
• work release
• Shock Incarceration
• Willard DTC
• clemency
• parole for deportation only
Excessive Force
Failure to Protect
Freedom of Speech and Religion
Gender
Health and Safety
Immigration
• Removal Defense
• Custody/Bond Proceedings
• Habeas Corpus
• Petitions for Review of Orders of Removal and Stays of Removal
Jail Time Credit
Medical Care
Medical Parole
Mental Health Care
Parole
• Denial
• Rescission
• Conditions
Protective Custody
Re-entry
Sentence Computation
Sexual Harassment
Solitary Confinement
Visitation Suspension
PLS Spotlight
NEWS
THE NEW YORK BAR FOUNDATION PRESENTS GRANT TO PRISONERS’ LEGAL SERVICES OF NEW YORK
The New York Bar Foundation (NYBF) recently presented agrant to Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York (PLS) for a project entitled The John R. Dunne NYBF Pre-Release and Re-Entry Program (PREP) Fellowship. The grant will be used to ...Read More »“A Woman on the Outside” workshop, exhibition, film screening and panel
Join us on April 1 for a film screening of “A Woman on the Outside,” a tender portrait of one family striving to love in the face of a system built to break them. Directors Zara Katz and Lisa Riordan Seville and protagonist Kristal Bush will begin at 5pm with a Be The Media! workshop on “Participatory Design in Journalistic Process.”Read More »Executive Director, Karen L. Murtagh Receives the Prestigious 2022 NYS Senate Woman of Distinction award
Thank you to Senator Neil Breslin for bestowing this prestigious award on our Executive Director who has been with PLS since 1983 and has served as our Executive Director for the past . . .Read More »
JOB OPENINGS
ADVOCACY & LITIGATION
CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT: NEW YORK PRISONS VIOLATE RESTRICTIONS ON PROLONGED SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
The New York Civil Liberties Union and Prisoners' Legal Services of New York today filed a class action lawsuit in state supreme court against New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) for illegally subjecting people to prolonged solitary confinement . . .Read More »PLS CHALLENGES WITHHOLDING OF EVIDENCE REQUESTED THROUGH FOIL
Timely access to prison records is critical to PLS’s ability to provide effective representation to our clients. Our primary means of obtaining records for initial investigations and advocacy is New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). We recently argued an appeal before the Appellate Division, Third Department challenging DOCCS' withholding of videos and narrative incident reports requested through FOIL.Read More »DOCCS REVERSES CLIENT’S REMOVAL FROM WORK RELEASE PROGRAM FOLLOWING A LAWSUIT FILED BY PLS IN FEDERAL COURT
PLS prevails in challenge to a DOCCS’ decision to remove our client from the work release program following his filing of a worker’s compensation program claim for a prior occupational injury as one that violates Americans with Disabilities Act.Read More »LAWSUIT CHALLENGES FIVE POINTS DENIAL OF MOBILITY ACCOMMODATIONS TO PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Today the nonprofit organizations Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) and Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York (PLS) filed a class action lawsuit against the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) on behalf of people with disabilities who are incarcerated at Five Points Correctional Facility and have been denied mobility-related accommodations they need to get around.Read More »