Law library-
This varies from facility to facility, and usually the space set aside
for the law library is only minimally large enough to pass as such. The
law library is part of a set of standards that statutory law outlines
the prison must provide, such as access to courts and access to
counsel. There will be a certain amount of legal research a prisoner
must be able to do, and many facilities no longer keep actual legal
tomes, relying instead solely on services online like Thompson WestLaw
and Lexis-Nexis. Both of these are good, but the prisoner must know how
to ask the law library staff for exactly what he/she wants. To request law
library services, a prisoner completes an Inmate Legal Assistance
Program (ILAP) request form and gives it to a CO or turns it in to the control tower. If the prisoner is in general population and the services they
request require it, they will be called out to the law library on the scheduled day for their housing unit unless it is shown they must meet an emergency
deadline. For prisoners in a lockdown setting, they must rely on what
is termed as an "exact-cite paging system." Meaning, if they do not know
exactly what they need and exactly how to request it on an ILAP Request Form, then they will not receive it.
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It sounds like a system heavily weighted in favor of the state.
ReplyDeleteSteven, i hope you get relief from Miller. I'm helping a juvenile (now 24) with his appeals (brett Jones) whose case is about to be decided in MS supreme court on 8th aMendment-as it applies to miller retroactivity. Keep fingers crossed. Justice kitchens who has the case wants retroactivity and the states suggestion of 10 years eligibility for parole. Pray sir.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. We are full of hope for Steven. We know he will be back at home with us, where he belongs. We're keeping our fingers crossed for Brett and other young people who have fallen victims to the injustice system.
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