From Michael Hamden:  Ave  Atque

Former Executive Director, NCPLS

As announced in the December 2007 edition of the NCPLS newsletter, Access, I tendered (and the Board of Directors accepted) my resignation from North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services.  In order to ensure a smooth process in recruiting new leadership, I offered to serve as the Acting Director for a period of about 6 months (through June 2008).  Regrettably, as events unfolded, that simply was not possible. 

By April 1st, I realized that as the Acting Director, I could no longer effectively serve our clients, our staff, our Board, or North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services.  Thus, I submitted my resignation to the President of the NCPLS Board on that date to take effect immediately.  After more than 22 years of service, and with a heavy heart, I left NCPLS on the evening of April 1st.

I was fortunate to secure employment with NCPLS on 9 September 1985.  (I was so pleased and proud that I remember the day and date clearly.)  About a decade later, after an exhaustive recruitment process that sparked the interest of a number of exceptional, experienced lawyers, I was selected to serve as the Executive Director of NCPLS. 

In the years that followed, NCPLS underwent a remarkable transformation.  We acquired state-of-the-art technology, we began to employ paralegals to assist in our work, we encouraged attorneys to develop areas of specialized knowledge to more efficiently serve our clients, and we developed a “team” approach to our work.  Out of this team approach developed the Intake, Civil, Post-Conviction, and Support Teams, each responsible for matters within its area of specialized knowledge and competency.  A “Case Acceptance Committee” ensured that sound reasoning lay behind every decision to expend limited program resources, and it provided an opportunity for our senior staff attorneys to offer suggestions as to how cases chosen for  litigation might best be prepared and tried.

To do a better job of reporting our work to our clients, we began publishing the newsletter, Access.  And the creation of our site on the internet – www.ncpls.org – provided a medium by which we could educate the public about criminal justice policy and the injustices sometimes experienced by people held in the state’s custody – brutality, abuse, and neglect. 

During my tenure as the Executive Director of NCPLS, the program grew to preeminence, employing more attorneys and paralegals, and providing a vastly broader array of services of higher quality to more clients on an annual basis than any other prisoner assistance program in the world.  While it is the members of the NCPLS staff who deserve credit for those accomplishments, I am proud to have played a role in that evolution.

In taking leave of the program, I want to assure you that, although you may feel alone at times, there are many who never forget you, lose interest in the way you are treated, or lack concern for your welfare.  Some of those people work at NCPLS, and I hope you will continue to seek their advice, counsel, and legal assistance.

In closing, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for the opportunity to have served you, and I bid you all a hearty “Hail! And Farewell!”          –   Michael S. Hamden, April 2008.