Our Work

The Prison Law Office (PLO) is a nonprofit public interest law firm based in Berkeley, California that strives to reduce incarceration and demands fair and humane treatment for people who remain in prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities and who are on parole. PLO engages in class action and other impact litigation, advocates for policy and law changes, assists individuals in administrative actions and lawsuits, educates the public, creates and distributes self-help information, and lends technical assistance to other attorneys.

Founded in 1976 by Michael Satris and Paul Comiskey, the PLO originally focused on conditions of confinement issues in California state prisons. Over the years, we have expanded our reach to advocate for people in California juvenile facilities, Arizona state prisons, California county jails, and beyond. PLO litigates the failure to provide adequate medical, dental, and mental health services, lack of reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities, use of excessive force, racial discrimination, overcrowding, unsanitary living conditions, solitary confinement, due process violations, and other unconstitutional and unlawful conditions of confinement.

Recent Updates

Featured
Prison Law Office, ACLU Move for Receiver in Arizona State Prison Case

February 2025: The Prison Law Office, ACLU, and Disability Rights Arizona asked a federal judge today to appoint a receiver to take over the management of healthcare in Arizona prisons. The request was made in a long-running class action lawsuit originally filed in 2012 on behalf of the nearly 30,000 people incarcerated by the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR). The receiver, an independent authority appointed by the court, would assume control of ADCRR’s medical and mental health care systems and ensure that they meet constitutional standards.

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Prison Law Office Submits Brief Supporting Prop. 57 Credits

January 2025: Prison Law Office has submitted an amicus curiae brief in CJLF v. CDCR, supporting CDCR’s use of its Proposition 57 authority to grant increased credits for good conduct and participation in rehabilitative programming.

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Court Experts Find People Are Dying Unnecessarily in Arizona State Prisons

January 2025: In a report filed on January 7, 2025, court-appointed experts in Jensen v. Thornell found “serious and pervasive systemic health care delivery failures” in Arizona state prisons that “place the residents at significant risk of serious harm, including death.” The experts told the judge: “And patients are dying. Unnecessarily.” The experts found that “it will be difficult, but more likely impossible, for [the prison system] to emerge on the other side of this Court’s Injunction if it continues to outsource the provision of health care.” The experts found that the state prison system “has insufficient leadership to promote the type of major change that has to be forthcoming in order to be compliant with the health care-related requirements of the Injunction.” The experts included in their 96 page report detailed discussion of a number of deaths in custody that illustrate the many compounding failures that preceded the deaths.

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