Clinical Professor of Law Daniel Manville can tell you exactly how much time he spent in a Michigan prison: 3 years, 4 months, 20 days, 22 hours and 17 minutes. While incarcerated from 1973 to 1976, he focused on studying for classes and earning two undergraduate degrees. He taught himself about legal resources and earned a reputation among fellow prisoners as a jailhouse lawyer.

After Dan was released in 1976 and finished law school, the same judge who had sentenced him to prison wrote a letter of recommendation for his admission into the Michigan State Bar. The case that granted Dan bar admission – In re Manville, 538 A. 2d 1128 (DC: Court of Appeals, 1988) – set important precedent for other formerly incarcerated people who seek to practice law following their release. For the almost 35 years since his admission to the bar, Dan has been at the forefront of litigating prisoners’ rights cases, publishing books and articles that aid prisoners' self-advocacy, and speaking nationally on the practice of prisoners’ rights law. 

Of his dedication to the prisoners’ rights bar, Dan said in one podcast: “My prison life is still a part of me and I will take it to my grave. I can’t just walk away from what I did and what prison did to me.” 

Dan is Clinical Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law and Director of MSU’s Civil Rights Clinic. More information about Dan’s work can be found in his faculty profile. Prisoners’ rights cases litigated by Dan or under his legal supervision include: 

• Glaspy v. Malicoat, 134 F.Supp.2d 890 (W.D. Mich. 2001) in which the Court held prison staff liable for not allowing a visitor to use the bathroom, which resulted in his urinating on himself. 
• Sallier v. Brooks, 343 F.3d 868 (6th Cir. 2003) in which the Court held that mail from a court was to be treated as legal mail and opened in front of the prisoner. 
• Howard v. Grinage, 82 F.3d 1343 (6th Cir. 1996), in which the Court held that prison officials would be liable to a prisoner if they acted intentionally or with deliberate indifference to his liberty interests in deciding to place him in protective segregation thereby increasing his security confinement. The Court found that officials’ motivation in denying due process by failing to hold a hearing was not relevant to establishing liability. 
• Muhammad v. Pitcher, 35 F.3d 1081 (6th Cir. 1994) in which the Court held unconstitutional a prison policy of opening mail from the State Attorney General’s Office outside the presence of the inmate. 

In addition to his direct experience with the obstacles that confront jailhouse lawyers and his extensive knowledge of what it takes to successfully litigate prisoners’ rights cases, Dan also brings to the Jailhouse Law Library considerable experience writing and editing legal materials for pro se litigants. His publications to aid incarcerated pro se litigants include: 

• Prison Disciplinary Manual: A Self-Help Approach, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press: 2011) 
• Prisoners’ Self-Help Litigation Manual, 4th ed. (co-author John Boston) (Oxford University Press: 2010) 
• “Protecting Your Health & Safety,” A Litigation Guide for Inmates (Southern Poverty Law Center: 2008) 
• “Federal Legal Standards for Prison Medical Care,” Prison Legal News, Vol. 14, No. 5 (May 2003) 
• “Statutes Affecting Prisoners with Disabilities,” Prisons and Corrections Forum, Prisons and Corrections Section of the Michigan State Bar, Vol. VI, No. 1 (Spring 2003) 

Dan guides and supports the legal work of PLAN Law Clerks and pro bono practitioners who contribute to the JLL. He previously assisted and advised PLAN Law Clerks in their development of legal analysis for PLAN’s COVID-19 Campaign and presented alongside a Law Clerk at PLAN’s 2020 Continuing Legal Education Program as to COVID-19 legal responses. Dan’s experience with PLAN’s unique legal advocacy model helps the JLL team strategize about the application and expansion of this approach through JLL initiatives. His familiarity with PLAN’s COVID-19 Campaign work product has aided the team’s efforts to build upon that body of work through the JLL, which will also house and update his prisoners’ rights publications in the Dan Manville Collection following his forthcoming retirement.