Pro Bono Placement – Legal Aid Society Prisoners’ Rights Project – Volunteers (Rolling)
- The Legal Aid Society has a system-wide class action lawsuit addressing guard brutality in the City jails.
- Placement: The organization seeks JD and LLM students to go to Rikers Island, attend one or more jails, and conduct lengthy interviews with inmates, which detail incidents involving the use of force by jail guards. The interviews, which usually cover two or three inmates a day, would include information about the inmate’s criminal history, background to the event which led to the use of force, as well as details of the force used against them. Students conducting interviews would obtain multiple signed medical releases, provide the inmate with a Notice of Claim, and draft a letter to the Director of Investigation. Students will accompany the paralegal of the Senior Supervising Attorney in the Prisoners’ Rights Project on one or two trips to a jail to see how the interviews are conducted and, once they are comfortable going on their own, they will.
- Time commitment: Ideally, students will devote one day per week to the project, but hours are to some extent flexible.
- Application details: Interested students should send a resume and cover letter to Jonathan S. Chasan, Senior Supervising Attorney, Prisoners’ Rights Project, at jchasan@legal-aid.org, which specifies your availability. Students with further questions may contact David Glasgow, Public Interest Law Center Fellow, at david.glasgow@nyu.edu.