PLAN’s prisoner-led advocacy model was developed by an inside-outside partnership of jailhouse lawyers and attorneys to address unmet legal needs that are identified by the system-impacted people who experience them firsthand. Presently and formerly incarcerated people play key roles in the organization’s leadership and operations. PLAN eschews approaches that restrict the perceived value of impacted individuals’ perspectives to their “lived experiences,” which sometimes have the effect of constraining directly impacted people to story-telling roles. We embrace the significant strategic and legal insights of those who have lived inside. Our work benefits immeasurably from current and former jailhouse lawyers’ nuanced understanding of prison policies and tactics and their deep knowledge of the legal challenges and priorities of system-involved individuals. Some presently and formerly incarcerated PLAN contributors are certified paralegals or practicing attorneys.

In addition to direct advocacy and litigation, PLAN’s approach also includes extra-judicial strategies such as public education and media campaigns that increase scrutiny of and pressure on agencies and contractors of the criminal legal system to correct rights-violating and dignity-denying procedures and practices. These strategies sometimes achieve favorable outcomes for system-impacted people with less delay and expense than litigation, thereby increasing the number of individuals served. PLAN often adopts a mass defense advocacy model, focusing on cases that involve incidents or conditions that affect a large number of presently or formerly incarcerated individuals.

PLAN catalyzes purpose-developed mobilization strategies and legal approaches by building coalitions whose members bring a diverse array of experience and subject matter expertise. PLAN legal response teams forge a learning lab environment that cultivates and sustains long-lasting relationships rather than transitory project teams. This model manifests innovative approaches to address previously intractable problems. Because these legal response teams operate remotely, PLAN is able to direct capacity to underserved regions and issues. This crowd-sourced approach to prisoners’ rights advocacy has enabled PLAN to harness under-utilized and geographically dispersed legal capacity to challenge inhumane conditions.

PLAN operates one of the largest prisoners’ rights Law Clerkship programs in the country. By meaningfully involving law students and recent law school graduates in the work of legal response teams, PLAN helps develop long-lasting mentorship relationships and trains the next generation of prisoners’ rights attorneys. PLAN also provides mentorship and resource materials to prison paralegals and jailhouse lawyers to support the critical advocacy and assistance roles they play inside.