"Providing effective legal services efficiently and with excellence."

• 28 year history of service
• Staff of 37, (23 women and 14 men)

                        16 lawyers, 12 paralegals, 8 support staff members

                        Average tenure:  7 years (6 years for attorneys; 9 years for paralegals)

• Efficiently delivers excellent legal services to a population of almost 37,000 DOC prisoners; 14,000 pretrial detainees (a changing population of about 250,000 people, annually)
• Services provided in more than 13,000 cases, annually
• NCPLS provides information and advice concerning legal rights and responsibilities, discourages frivolous litigation, works toward administrative resolutions of legitimate problems, and provides representation in court to ensure humane conditions of confinement and to challenge illegal convictions and sentences.
• Governance -   the program is governed by a Board of Directors designated by various organizations and institutions, including the North Carolina Bar Association, the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys, and law school deans at UNC, Duke, NCCU, Wake Forest and Campbell.

• Cost/Benefit - During the past five years, the contract with DOC has generated an average of less than $2.5 million for NCPLS, annually.  During the same period of time, NCPLS has saved the DOC more than $15 million ($3 million per year) by ensuring that prisoners' convictions and sentences comport with the law, and that prisoners are properly credited with time-served.  The contract with DOC more than pays for itself.

Significant Activities & Litigation of NCPLS

Established in 1978, North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc., (NCPLS), is a non-profit, public service organization.  No other entity in North Carolina routinely provides civil and post-conviction services to the State's incarcerated population.

NCPLS Activities

NCPLS engages in a broad range of advocacy on behalf of prisoners.  Although litigation has always been an important focus of that advocacy, the program has placed greater emphasis on collaborative processes during the past decade.  For example, the program has worked with the Department of Correction and county governments in partnership to resolve legal issues and potential disputes as an alternative to adversarial legal proceedings.  Other activities include:

• North Carolina Sentencing & Policy Advisory Commission (NCPLS Office Administrator, Billy Sanders, Commissioner).
• North Carolina Prisoner Litigation Conference - NCPLS convened a conference to discuss improving efficiencies in prisoner litigation involving representatives of the United States District Court, the U.S. Marshal, the Department of Correction, the Inmate Grievance Resolution Board, and the Office of the Attorney General.
• American Correctional Association - NCPLS' Executive Director serves as a member on both the Standards Committee and the Commission on Accreditation for Corrections.
• National Academies of Science, Institute of Medicine - NCPLS' Executive Director serves as consultant regarding the use of prisoner-subjects in research.

NCPLS Litigation

West v. Atkins , 487 U.S. 42 (1988)(obligation to provide medical care to prisoners is non-delegable duty of the state). 

Medley v. N.C. Dept. of Correction , 412 S.E. 2d 654 (N.C.S.Ct. 1992)(State-law duty to provide adequate medical care for prisoners cannot be delegated). 

Sm all v. Martin , 85-987-CRT (EDNC 1985)(Class action challenging conditions at 48 of the State's prison units resulted in 1998 settlement, legislation that capped the prison population, and led to Structured Sentencing).

Hamilton v. Freeman , 554 S.E.2d 856 (NC App. 2001)(DOC required to honor judgment & commitment order as entered by court and could not unilaterally modify sentences based on its own determination that sentence violated state statute).

NCPLS is the Most Cost-Effective and Efficient means of providing an essential public service

• Working with government officials and agencies to ensure the humane and lawful treatment of North Carolina prisoners, NCPLS has a 26 year history of excellence.

• After more than a decade of litigation in Bounds v. Smith , North Carolina has arrived at a mechanism to provide legal assistance to prisoners through NCPLS which passes constitutional muster.  Smith v. Bounds , 430 U.S. 817 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 272 (1977); 657 F.Supp. 1322 (E.D.N.C. 1986), aff'd , 813 F.2d 1299 (4th Cir. 1987), aff'd on reh'g , 841 F.2d 77 (4th Cir.), aff'd , 430 U.S. 817 , 109 S.Ct. 176 (1988).
  
• The constitutional sufficiency of the services provided by NCPLS has been tested in the courts and consistently affirmed.   Bradley v. NC Dept. of Correction , No. 5:04-CT-44-FL ( 29 November 2004 , E.D.N.C.)(claim that DOC and NCPLS failed to provide minimum standards of adequate access to the courts dismissed as frivolous); Wrenn v. Freeman , 894 F.Supp. 244 (E.D.N.C. 1995), aff'd per curiam , 92 F.3d 1184 (4 th Cir. 1996)(Table), cert. denied , 519 U.S. 1136 (1997) ; Ganey v. Johnson , 908 F.2d 966 (4 th Cir. 1990); Murray v. NCPLS , No. 5:94-CT-188-F (E.D.N.C. 9 March 1995), affirmed , No. 95-6428 (4 th Cir. 28 June 1995 )(Unpublished).

• Since the federal courts approved the contract between NCPLS and the Department of Correction, no court has found that any North Carolina prisoner has been deprived of access to the courts. 

• Any alternative mechanism to fulfilling the state's constitutional obligation to provide legal assistance to prisoners would be the subject of protracted federal litigation.

• NCPLS saves the DOC more than the cost of the services it provides. During the past five years, the contract with DOC has generated an average of less than $2.5 million for NCPLS, annually.  During the same period of time, NCPLS has saved the DOC more than $15 million ($3 million per year) by ensuring that prisoners' convictions and sentences comport with the law, and that prisoners are properly credited with time-served.  The contract with DOC more than pays for itself.

• The responsible advocacy provided by NCPLS has established credibility and provided the basis for positive and productive relationships with the courts, government officials, and state agencies, including the Department of Correction.  For further information, we encourage you to contact NCPLS, the Secretary of Correction and other public servants who have experience in dealing with the program.