In honor of National Coming Out Day (October 11), OCLBA invites members and friends to consider a new pro bono project:
Learn how you can support our communities during COVID-19! As COVID-19 spreads through prisons and jails, outside legal information is critically important to people who are incarcerated in California. This training will train participants on the rights of people who are incarcerated in California, strategies to support incarcerated people during COVID-19, and technical rules regarding corresponding with people in California prisons and jails. Participants will also be briefed on transgender, gender-variant, and intersex (TGI) cultural competency and receive information that is necessary to support incarcerated members of this community, who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19. Eligible for Elimination of Bias CLE credit.
This training is a prerequisite for both TGIJP’s Incarcerated TGI Representation Network and TGIJP’s Legal Mail Clinic, which are pro bono hour earning opportunities that are conducted remotely. The former is open only to lawyers and the latter is open to lawyers, law students, and paralegals.
Incarcerated TGI Representation Network
Network attorneys directly represent incarcerated TGI people unable to otherwise find representation. Attorneys can engage in non-litigation advocacy and support.
Work pro bono representatives can expect to engage in:
Advocacy letters and calls
Name and Gender ID assistance inside
Assistance with administrative appeal process
PREA reporting
Legal action to enforce rights
Common issue areas:
Inadequate medical care
Staff abuse
Abuse by other incarcerated people
Transfers
Placement in solitary confinement
Name and gender marker changes
Access to gendered property items
Release from prisons and jails
TGIJP’s Legal Mail Clinic
The Legal Mail Clinic will build participant skill and experience in answering legal mail inquiries from TGI people in CA jails and prisons, provide education on laws protecting the rights of people in such facilities, and provide hands on experience in effective advocacy strategies to assert those rights and to secure peoples’ release.
