In 1978, the Para-Professional Law Clinic, made up of inmates of the State Correctional Institution at Graterford, filed a Section 1983 suit in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, pro se, against the Secretary of Corrections for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and prison officials. Plaintiffs alleged that defendants' plan to close the PPLC would violate inmates constitutional right of access to the courts. At some point the Institutional Law Project agreed to represent plaintiffs.

Following several hearings, Judge Joseph S. Lord, III, issued a permanent injunction in favor of plaintiffs. Judge Lord held that although the current prison library was adequate, it was insufficient to preserve the fundamental right of access to the courts on the part of those prisoners in administrative or disciplinary custody or who were functionally illiterate. Judge Lord found that the PPLC was the only current means of access to the courts for those inmates and therefore it could not be closed. United States ex rel. Para-Professional Law Clinic v. Kane, 656 F. Supp. 1099 (E.D. Pa. 1987).

In February 2001, defendants moved to terminate the 1987 injunction under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. Following an evidentiary hearing, the District Court (Judge Berle M. Schiller) granted defendants' motion, but cautioned that should defendants close the PPLC they would likely be hauled back into court because of the inadequacy of their law library and legal services. United States ex rel. Para-Professional Law Clinic v. Beard, 2002 WL 1160757 (E.D. Pa. May 30, 2002). Plaintiffs appealed, but the Court of Appeals affirmed on July 24, 2003. United States ex rel. Para-Professional Law Clinic v. Beard, 334 F.3d 301 (3d Cir. 2003). According to the docket available on PACER, the case was closed in June 2002.

Rebekah Henn Sullivan - 07/28/2005


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