The Legal Aid Society, represented by The Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic, has filed a lawsuit seeking to end the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision’s (DOCCS) unlawful practice of monitoring calls made by people incarcerated in New York prisons to Legal Aid-operated helplines.

Legal Aid currently operates two telephone helplines that provide free legal assistance to thousands of incarcerated individuals each year. Through the helplines, current and prospective Legal Aid clients may call to speak with legal staff to obtain legal advice, referrals, advocacy, and representation at no cost. By subjecting the helpline calls to surveillance, DOCCS is effectively preventing timely, honest communications between incarcerated people and their attorneys.

“In order for Legal Aid to deliver effective legal assistance to incarcerated New Yorkers, our attorneys must be allowed to communicate with clients in a timely, confidential manner,” said Mary Lynne Werlwas, Director of the Prisoners’ Rights Project at Legal Aid. “DOCCS’s practice of surveilling these helpline calls does nothing to enhance prison safety. Instead, it takes away the only immediate, direct line of assistance that incarcerated people are offered and hinders our attorneys’ and paralegals’ ability to provide incarcerated people with confidential legal advice.”