PLS helps prisoners with serious medical needs that are not being met. Our Advocates counsel prisoners, attorneys, and family members about their right to adequate health care and how to seek treatment internally. We also advocate directly with jail and prison health administrators over deficient care, and in certain cases, we represent prisoners in litigation to remedy constitutional violations. Mental health care and treatment is a critical component of our work. PLS advocates for care and litigates both individual and class action matters on behalf of mentally ill prisoners.
Incarcerated people who are permanently physically or cognitively incapacitated or are terminally ill with less than 18 months to live can apply to be released on medical parole. Even those who have sentences with no parole eligibility, including natural lifers, can be eligible for medical parole.
At any given moment, tens of thousands of people across the country are held in solitary confinement, hundreds of them in Massachusetts. These prisoners are locked in small, concrete cells, typically with a solid door that faces a wall over 20 hours a day, a kind of torture. These men and women get their three small meals a day through a slot in the cell door, and see their loved ones only through glass, if at all. In Massachusetts, prisoners can still be held for many years in solitary confinement. Through our litigation, coalition building, and legislative work, we aim to ensure that no prisoner is subjected to this torment.
This week, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled that the death of Shacoby Kenny was a homicide, concluding that he suffered cardiac arrest and catastrophic brain injury during a physical restraint by correction...
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“Death Under Watch” is an ongoing series by MassLive and The Republican investigating deaths in Massachusetts prisons and jails. Access the article here. Before he died, Shacoby Kenny was surrounded by a group of officers at...
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“Death Under Watch” is an ongoing series by MassLive and The Springfield Republican investigating deaths in Massachusetts prisons and jails. Access the article here. Massachusetts prisons and jails have seen more than 140 deaths since...
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As of February 1, 2026, PLS has a new address located on a different floor in the same building.
Our new address is:
Prisoners’ Legal Services
50 Federal Street, 7th Floor
Boston, MA 02110
Any mail already in transit will be forwarded. Thank you!