Law Project
Our services directly address the legal obstacles justice-impacted women and LGBTQIA+ individuals face.
Avenues to quality legal support are critical for our clients, but difficult to obtain, and the Law Project at the Women’s Prison Association (WPA) fills that gap with free, accessible support. Legal issues such as housing rights, unlawful discrimination, and family matters can hinder someone’s reintegration and recovery after incarceration. At WPA, we address these barriers to reentry and rehabilitation through our client-centered and gender-responsive approach.
Legal Services
The Law Project helps WPA clients navigate the various legal and social services systems that affect their stability and the stability of their family.
We partner with and empower clients to overcome individual and systemic obstacles by identifying their needs, assessing available solutions, and connecting them to the right counsel.
Family Matters
Addressing family issues such as custody, parental rights, and child support expands family unification efforts, protects children, and empowers our clients to seek safe and equitable solutions.
We assist our clients in navigating various legal matters related to child protection services (ACS), including foster care involvement, custody and visitation, guardianship, the preservation of parental rights, adoption, and post-termination of parental rights. We also connect our clients to services for child and spousal support, issues related to intimate partner and family violence, such as orders of protection, and divorce.
Collateral Consequences of Criminal Convictions
We address barriers to reentry by connecting clients to legal support for certificates of relief from disability or good conduct, addressing denial of rights due to systems involvement, facilitating record expungement, and obtaining and advocating for corrections on rap sheets.
Other Civil Legal Matters
We work to dismantle barriers that disproportionately affect marginalized women, particularly women of color, and help them achieve stability in the community. This includes connecting clients to legal support for housing rights, eviction prevention, unlawful discrimination, identity theft, public benefits, immigration assistance, bankruptcy, and shelter denial.
Program Eligibility
We accept clients who:
- Are ages 18+
- Are in the community with current or prior systems involvement, or are currently in jail or prison
Clients must meet all of these requirements to enroll.
Programs
WPA offers comprehensive programs and services before, during, and after incarceration.
About WPA
WPA empowers participants to redefine their lives in the face of injustice and incarceration.