For the past several months, we at the Prison Law Blog have been searching for ways to better answer your questions about the Federal Bureau of Prisons, prisoners’ rights, and prison survival. We have been seeking ways to delve more comprehensively into the realm of prison life so that those soon-to-be-incarcerated, those already incarcerated, and those who work with or know the incarcerated will have better information upon which to understand incarceration and the rights of prisoners.
In our search for effective information dissemination methodologies, we have increased our publication volume on the Prison Law Blog by coming to content-sharing agreements with Prison Legal News, Jean Trounstine’s Justice With Jean blog, and other media outlets (both online and in print). We have invited guest bloggers — experts in the prison consulting and prison survival realms — to contribute their voices through interviews and articles. We have even penned a book about prison survival — which is currently being reviewed by literary agents for representation consideration — and are currently working on another book that profiles every institution within the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Long story short, we have strived to be innovative, unique, and active in all of our efforts. We feel that we have succeeded on all three counts.
Now we’re back at it again with our Prison Survival Reports service. The Prison Survival Reports service is a concept that we have been mentally toying with for quite some time and are now ready to start working on. We plan on producing downloadable Prison Survival Reports, which delve into all areas of the arrest, incarceration, and release arenas. These reports will cover all manner of criminal justice topics that the Prison Law Blog readership will find of interest. Several Prison Survival Report topics, which we are considering researching, are as follows:
- Communication with the outside world (Telephone, U.S. Mail, Email)
- Disciplinary rights of federal prisoners (process, protocol, defensive strategies, and procedures)
- Paperwork politics (how prisoners check fellow prisoners’ paperwork and how to handle such aggressive situations)
- Educational opportunities available to prisoners (both in-prison and correspondence offerings)
- How to avoid and report sexual assault (including the various reporting mechanisms and their pros and cons)
These Prison Survival Reports, of which the above are just a few ideas, will comprehensively delve into the topics at hand. They will include boots-on-the-ground advice, the official Federal Bureau of Prisons’ policy concerning the topic, the applicable case law surrounding the topic, and our own expert advice. In short, when you find that you or a loved one has an informational need, the Prison Law Blog Prison Survival Reports will be there to provide essential information in real-time.
But that’s not all. As part of our Prison Survival Reports, we will also be making available model/sample documents for prisoners to use when needs arise. For example, we plan on drafting a number of sample disciplinary appeal attachment pages. These attachment pages will provide the basis for a basic disciplinary appeal (or even an attachment page for the appeal of a specific disciplinary code violation). The idea is that the prisoner will need to modify the sample attachment page with the unique information about their situation but that they will have all of the case law and other required text already prepared for them. While written statements for prison disciplinary hearings are very specialized, the appeals process isn’t nearly so focused. As such, the attachment page can be modified at the prison to suit the prisoner’s unique situation, attached to a BP-8 (Informal Resolution), BP-9 (Appeal to the Warden’s Office), BP-10 (Regional Appeal), and/or BP-11 (Central Office), and act as the appeal of an adverse prison disciplinary findings.
Likewise, these attachment pages will also be produced for other frequent administrative remedy needs. For example, if a federal prisoner is denied access to the TRULINCS/Corrlinks.com email system, the attachment page for that could easily be downloaded and used to appeal the TRULINCS email access denial. Or, if a prisoner is being denied meaningful dental care, the attachment page for that could be downloaded, modified for the instant situation, and used by the prisoner. Or, even if a prisoner is fired from their institutional work detail, and the prisoner feels that it is in violation of Federal Bureau of Prisons’ regulations, the attachment page for that can be used. The point is: we aim to produce model/sample administrative remedy attachment pages for all needs which can possibly arise. Naturally, this will be a work in progress that will eventually result in a comprehensive repository of such self-help legal documents.
Since the Prison Law Blog is only in the beginning stages of this project, we are actively seeking your input on what sorts of information you would like us to cover. Please post a comment below or email us to let us know what topics you would like to see Prison Survival Reports consider. The same goes for administrative remedy attachment pages. Let us know what issues have arisen in your lives in which you could have used or currently need an administrative remedy. Your input is valued and required for this project to be a success. Let your voice be heard. Contribute by posting a comment below.
Published Sep 24, 2013 by Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA | Last Updated by Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA on Jul 10, 2024 at 6:19 pm