About PLS

Fueled by mass incarceration, the war on drugs, and racism, the 1980s were marked by prison and jail overcrowding and mistreatment of HIV-positive incarcerated people along with guard assaults and inadequate medical and mental health care. During the 1990s, explicitly brutal policies supported abandoning already limited rehabilitative programming for more punitive goals. Educational programs beyond those leading to a high school equivalency diploma were eliminated. Prisoner contact with the outside world was drastically diminished by ending furloughs and minimizing work-release placements, parole, and media access. The decade also saw a dramatically increased reliance on solitary confinement as a management tool across prison systems.

PLS, along with many advocates including currently and formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones have been working hard to push back against solitary confinement and address the needs of those funneled into the carceral system. In the last decade, PLS successfully sued to obtain access to life-saving Hepatitis C medications for those in state prisons, helped bring major improvements to Bridgewater State Hospital and end the imprisonment of women civilly committed for substance use treatment, and helped pass major reforms as part of the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2018. The Act established the state’s first compassionate release program, reduced the state’s reliance on solitary confinement, and improved treatment for LGBTQ+ people who are incarcerated. This year, the DOC announced plans to end its use of solitary confinement and to finally close the Department Disciplinary Unit, one of the most restrictive solitary units in the nation.