Jan. 15, 2014

Legal Assistance

by Pablo Piña (author's profile)

Transcription

Pablo Piña D-28079
D-2 122 SHU
P.O. Box 7500
Crescent City, CA 95531

Re: Legal Assistance In The SHU (PBSP)

Prison officials at Pelican Bay State Prison have procedures in place to prevent prisoners from seeking legal assistance from another prison inmate who has some experience in preparing legal documents and getting a case, habeas corpus or civil rights suits, through the courts.

It was always like this: at first, we could get help from anyone, no matter where they were housed. Then in 1994, they stopped it. Now the policy is that one can only get assistance from someone in his unit. They could only get help for two weeks.

This makes—and continues to make it—impossible to get help from a paralegal because not as many prisoners are that knowledgeable in the law. So if one is not in your unit, you're on your own. Or you can get help from someone who knows a little more than you, and you're sure to fail.

Recently, I was asked by another prisoner to help him petition the court about his being charged $20,000 restitution when he is not supposed to pay restitution under the law. Any prisoner serving life without possibility of parole is exempt from restitution. I'd like to help him, but I can't because he's in another pod and I can't speak with him. The two-week assistance program won't do. He has action; I've read case law that supports his argument. But it does very little good.

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