Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs

D.C. PRISONERS' PROJECT

As the successor to the D.C. Prisoners’ Legal Services Project, Inc., the mission of the D.C. Prisoners’ Project of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs remains to advocate for the humane treatment and dignity of all persons convicted or charged with a criminal offense under D.C. law housed in prisons, jails or community corrections programs, to assist their family members with prison-related issues, and to promote progressive criminal justice reform. Our Project remains the only legal organization with a mission of advocating for the interests of over 7,000 D.C. prisoners currently held in 99 different federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities across the country, in addition to more than 3,500 held in the D.C. Jail and the Correctional Treatment Facility.

The Project has traditionally addressed the problems of our clients with both litigation and non-litigation advocacy approaches, and have focused on both individual matters and broader, systemic strategies. Our current priorities for our three-member staff include:

Insuring access to constitutionally-adequate levels of medical and mental health care in both local jail and distant BOP facilities, recognizing the particular problems of women in correctional facilities.
Responding to, and working to prevent, acts of violence, including securing money damages for our clients where appropriate and to discourage conditions that lead to violence.
Insuring prisoners’ access to the courts and legal resources.
Improving the way individuals are released from jail and prison, and their treatment after release, with particular attention to their medical and mental health needs, but also including issues around employment, housing, and parole.
Engaging in public policy advocacy to improve our clients’ conditions of confinement and to support alternatives to incarceration.

Public Reports and Prisoner Resources

From time to time, and in collaboration with other organizations, the Project issues public reports on issues relevant to our client population.

We also provide resource guides for prisoners and for families of prisoners.

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