“In the Prisoner Assistance Clinic our job is to figure out how to minimize the collateral consequences of incarceration,” Maggie Lavoie, a 3L, said.
Lavoie is one of the students this semester working in the Prisoner Assistance (PA) Clinic at Maine Law. Student attorneys in the PA Clinic assist clients with civil legal matters that arise during, and sometimes due to, their incarceration. The PA Clinic provides in-person legal assistance to clients at the Maine Correctional Center (MCC) and at the Southern Maine Women’s Reentry Center (SMWRC) in Windham. Student attorneys also provide remote assistance to clients who are incarcerated at other prisons and jails throughout Maine, including Maine State Prison, Bolduc Correctional Facility, and Downeast Correctional Facility.
“Without access to legal help for civil matters many of these people are at risk of losing their homes, access to their children, any savings, the list goes on,” Lavoie continued.
The program is the only one of its kind in Maine and one of the few to exist in the entire country. Last year alone, the clinic assisted in over 80 cases, in person at MCC and SMWRC and remotely at other facilities.
Professor Courtney Beer, who directs the PA Clinic and is Co-Director of the Clinics at Maine Law, said there is a wide breadth of cases students assist with. The most common is family matters, which includes divorces, child support, parental rights, guardianship, probate, and many other matters.
“As the only legal aid provider representing Maine’s incarcerated population on civil legal matters, our student attorneys are providing a vital service to the state,” Beer said.
Recently, the PA Clinic expanded its scope and reach to focus on getting clients in prison more information about their rights generally. “The goal of our ‘Know Your Rights’ trainings is to empower more people with information about their rights and expand access to justice,” Beer added. This past summer, students developed a training focused on parental rights, one of the most pressing issues facing incarcerated people.
“The parental rights training was incredibly well received by both staff at MCC, who have asked us to repeat the training a few times each year, and by residents, many of whom submitted intake forms after attending the training because they wanted help with one of the legal rights that they learned about in the training,” said Jenn Rizzuto, the new Staff Attorney/Civil Advocacy Teaching Fellow who helps supervise the PA students and develop the trainings.
Students are developing more “Know Your Rights” trainings that they plan to present at MCC and other facilities soon.
The trainings provide legal information and advice key for incarcerated parents to understand what options they have regarding care of their children. This information is essential for parents to be informed of the legal consequences of decisions they make.
“I had a client who agreed to a guardianship order before she was incarcerated but didn’t realize the impact it would have on her ability to have a relationship with her children. I had to sit down and tell her the ramifications of the paperwork she signed. Conversations like that can be devastating,” Felland said.
It can be challenging to balance the emotional toll of client counseling with the many other responsibilities of clinical work and being a full-time law student. One thing that helps? The gratitude and understanding they consistently receive from their clients.
“For many incarcerated people it can be helpful to have someone just to talk through their troubles with,” Lavoie said. “Whether or not we’re able to help them to have the ear of a professional can be validating. They know that I hear them, I respect and understand them, and I am going to do everything within my power to help them.”
