From MacArthur Justice Center:
Through our representation of people who are incarcerated, we often take an advocacy role both before the court and with the facilities which house our clients. These arenas are usually intertwined with each other, as our cases often arise from events that happen – or are actively occurring – at these facilities. As legal counsel, we often need to speak with our incarcerated clients in a timely manner to effectively advocate for them in court, and our clients have a right to know what is going on in the lawsuit that they started. In contrast to the orderly structure and formality of litigation, our incarcerated clients often need to speak with us to keep us informed of the dangerous conditions they face each day: our incarcerated clients are often seriously ill, injured, recovering from illness or injury, or facing threats of harm from within their facilities. Preventing our incarcerated clients from speaking with their legal advocates greatly hinders our efforts to advocate for them.
Most MJC cases involve civil lawsuits, so while there is no Sixth Amendment right to counsel in those cases, we are obligated to keep our clients informed of the developments in their case within a reasonable time. We often need to speak with our clients to ascertain facts about their case, to propose and discuss legal strategy, and to answer questions they might have. It is often not enough to do this through written correspondence; it can take a week or two for mail to enter or exit a correctional facility, and electronic messaging apps like JPay and Securus are closely monitored and therefore open to inspection by correctional staff.
How hard could it possibly be to schedule a phone call with a client who is incarcerated? It can take days or weeks just to schedule one phone call. For one example, the Michigan Department of Corrections outright refuses to devote any resources for facilitating attorney-client phone calls. Instead, they leave it to us to reach out to our clients directly and hope that our clients can access a phone at the date and time we propose. California state facilities require that every attorney complete a clearance process (the same process for in-person visits) before they are allowed to even schedule a call; once that clearance is granted, California facilities often tell us that they are booked for several weeks before they can schedule a call. It is another story entirely if a client is in any kind of high-security level or solitary confinement; we have had instances where clients were handcuffed for the duration of the call, unable to take notes or hold the phone themselves. Continue reading >>>
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