ABOUT PLI
ORIGIN OF PRISON LIGHTS, INC.
Prison Lights, Inc. (PLI) had a very modest beginning. The road to PLI began with attorney Parrish Collins and one paralegal at the firm of Collins & Collins, P.C. In 2017, it appeared that there was a full-on assault on civil rights. An assault on civil rights always affects the most vulnerable in society the hardest: the poor, people of color, people with mental illnesses and other disabilities, and those suffering from addiction. They’re not just hit the hardest; they are specifically targeted. This is not a new trend. These vulnerable individuals have always been targets, which explains why they fill the nation’s prisons and jails.
Parrish decided he needed to take on a civil rights case or two to do his part. He attended a continuing legal education seminar on solitary confinement. His initial thoughts centered on how medical personnel onsite in the prisons could allow people already suffering from severe mental illnesses to undergo psychological torture through solitary confinement. To Parrish, solitary confinement epitomized medical abuse. He had found his calling in civil rights work.
The prison medical abuse and neglect practice at Collins & Collins, P.C. started with occasional calls. Parrish and his paralegal, a fervent advocate for criminal justice reform, took the calls, listened, and most importantly, visited the prisons. Each call seemed more shocking than the last. Contrary to the perception that prisoners cannot be trusted to tell the truth, Parrish found that, if anything, prisoners often underestimated the level of medical abuse.
Collins & Collins, P.C. has since spoken with thousands of prisoners and/or their surviving loved ones and listened. Since embarking on the journey to combat prison and jail medical abuse in 2017, Collins & Collins, P.C. has filed over 60 lawsuits. While that number seems high, it’s not enough. The firm has had to turn away hundreds upon hundreds of prisoners with valid complaints of medical neglect. Many were very ill and not receiving the necessary medical care. Some later passed away. Each case serves as a painful reminder of the limitations of the resources at hand.
Parrish hopes that Prison Lights can change this by marshaling the necessary personnel and resources to not only help more prisoners suffering extreme medical neglect and abuse but also to instigate change in correctional medical care nationally—eventually in every jail and prison in the United States. It can and must be done. Here’s how.
MAPPING THE JOURNEY FROM FIRST CALL TO TRIAL
Contracts between the public entity and the medical and food contractors from the time when a prisoner suffered due to medical neglect.
The three most recent audits by the American Correctional Association (ACA) and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC).
Organizational charts for the correctional facility and the governing body, such as a state department of corrections.
For any lawyer, law firm or citizen wishing to begin investigating and changing prisons, medical and beyond, start with public record request, read the responses and commence digging.