Law School Clinic Writes Legal Guide for the Prison Book Program

On December 5, 2024, the Prison Book Program announced the publication of a 92-page legal manual written to meet the needs of incarcerated people in the United States. Seton Hall University School of Law students in the Equal Justice Clinic, under the supervision of Professor Jenny-Brooke Condon, worked extensively in collaboration with the Prison Book Program to write The Insider’s Guide to Jailhouse Law over the course of multiple semesters.

The Guide was published by the Prison Book Program, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that distributes books and reading materials to incarcerated individuals, their advocates and family members, and books-to-prison organizations nationwide. The Program revealed that one of the mostly highly-requested resources is legal guides, manuals, or legal dictionaries; but because books are donated to the program there is a finite amount of resources to distribute. To meet the demand for legal resources, the Prison Book Program board members partnered with the Equal Justice Clinic to create a legal guide that could be easily understood and widely distributed.

Professor Condon, students in the clinic, and volunteer attorneys from the Prison Book Program worked together to create The Guide, which has been carefully researched and reflects the current law in language that individuals at most reading levels can understand. The legal materials covered in The Guide includes: an overview of the U.S. legal system including how to file claims, clear explanations of constitutional rights impacting incarcerated individuals; such as Due Process, The First Amendment, The Eighth Amendment, and parole; procedures for changing conditions of confinement, seeking post-conviction relief, practical tips for legal research, writing, advocacy in court, a brief legal dictionary and new laws such as The Prison Rape Elimination Act and Compassionate Release under the 2023 United States Sentencing Guidelines. While not a comprehensive guide, the materials focus on areas of the law incarcerated individuals will most likely face and systems they may need to manage. The Guide can be accessed online by incarcerated individuals who may have access to law libraries, can be printed by family members or can be shipped from the Prison Book Program warehouse.

Professor Condon provides, “This was a great project for students to work on in addition to the normal work the clinic does as it was a way for students to reach people more broadly who they may not normally be able to help.” Students worked extensively to research, revise and compile the guide in an easy-to-read format. Student contributors included: Anna Bock (‘23), Samantha Jerabek (‘23), Angelica Manos (‘23), Jacqueline McDonald (‘23), Michael Oros (‘23), Kaitlin Principato (‘23), Jamie Sanderson (‘23), Dana Saperstein (‘23), Christina Scarabino (‘23), and Scott Somerville (‘23) with a special thanks for their substantial contributions to Jesse Leon (‘24) and Joshua Lesser (’24).

For more information about the Prison Book Program, visit their website here.