NLG Sustainer Profile – BONNIE TENNERIELLO

by Judith Somberg

This month, we are profiling Bonnie Tenneriello, a staff attorney at Prisoners Legal Services (PLS) of Massachusetts for the last seven years.

Bonnie’s early career included a stint at the Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy group seeking to promote human rights in US foreign policy.   She went to law school at the University of Michigan in order to continue working for change, but in the domestic arena.  While in law school, so she helped start a project working with prisoners.    After law school, she clerked for a federal judge and then received a Skadden Fellowship to work with migrant farmworkers.   In Boston, she worked for five years with the National Voting Rights Institute before coming to PLS.

At PLS Bonnie represents prisoners in civil litigation, provides advice and advocacy to prisoners on a broad range of issues, and engages in policy advocacy.  Issues that PLS works on include access to medical care, prison conditions and overcrowding, guard assaults, and segregation.   Bonnie says the work is not without its frustrations:  “The law in this area is abominable. While it protects prisoners from some of the worst abuses, their constitutionals rights have been interpreted very restrictively by the courts and the barriers to prevailing are often insurmountable.”

Bonnie says that many people are not aware how many prisoners spend long periods in solitary confinement, with only one hour a day outside of their small, concrete cell and with visits only through glass.   Prisoners found guilty of the most serious disciplinary offenses can be segregated like this for ten years for each offense.  “It’s unfathomable to me what it must be like to endure this.”  PLS currently is co-counsel in a lawsuit challenging the segregation of prisoners with serious mental illness, which has been held to be cruel and unusual punishment.  But otherwise, courts have been tolerant of the widespread use of solitary confinement.

Bonnie also points out that Congress has limited prisoners’ ability to go to court with the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which prevents them from suing if they have not strictly complied with written grievance requirements and prevents them from suing if their harm is only mental or emotional, without physical injury.

Also, at a time when it should be obvious that prisons are overcrowded and long sentences don’t lead to less crime, the parole board is releasing fewer prisoners on parole.  Likewise, prisoners are held at higher security levels than necessary, giving them less opportunity for employment and programs that will help them prepare for re-entry in their communities.  But she sees hope that this will change.  “It’s becoming more obvious that over-incarceration is expensive and doesn’t make us more safe.   Budget pressures may help make us smart on crime.  And as prison populations have grown, the communities who lose people to prison and crime have become more vocal.”

Bonnie says that her work with clients has many rewards.  “I’m always surprised at how often prisoners are able to understand the limitations of the law, despite the very difficult circumstances they face,” she says.  She also is inspired by prisoners who focus on the needs of others around them, helping more vulnerable prisoners advocate for themselves.    And she adds that some of her clients “are very good ‘jailhouse lawyers’.  They can partner with you in litigation.  And of course, when you do win something, it’s tremendously satisfying.”  Bonnie says she feels privileged that prisoners share a slice of their lives with her and open her up to a range of experiences that she would never otherwise encounter.

Bonnie also says that she feels lucky to work with a great group of colleagues at PLS, who are talented, hard-working, and have a shared sense of mission and purpose.   “You need that kind of community to tackle this kind of work.”

In addition to being a Mass Chapter sustainer, Bonnie is a member of the board of directors of the Mass Chapter.  She loves the Guild and feels that it is important to be part of a community that shares her values.  She says, “At a time when our society seems less and less committed to values like equality and political freedom, it sustains me to join together with others who fight for those values.”

Judith Somberg serves on NLG Massachusetts Chapter’s Board of Directors.