Attorney-client privileges go out the window at SCI-Pine Grove

 

Attorney Martha Conley entered State Correctional Institution – Pine Grove at approximately 9:00AM on April 30, 2026, to visit her client, Jerome Coffey. During her initial screening, required by all visitors to Pennsylvania prisons, officials illegally photocopied 60 pages of Attorney Conley’s confidential documents, thereby violating attorney-client privileges.

Conley has been visiting her client, Mr. Jerome Coffey, for more than 24 years, but this was the first time that SCI facility officials illegally photocopied confidential documents. Attorney Conley is the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) illegally photocopied Mumia Abu-Jamal’s legal mail 31 years ago and sent it to then Governor Tom Ridge for viewing. Mumia sued over this infraction and won. (Mumia Abu-Jamal v. James Price, 1995 U. S. Dist. Lexis 20973, Civil Action No 95-618, June 2, 1995.)

Established law — Title 28 Code of Federal Regulations § 503 — prohibits the monitoring or review of communications between an inmate and attorneys or attorneys’agents who are traditionally covered by the attorney-client privileges.

But the courts have been used to limit attorney-client privileges. In 2002, criminal defense attorney Lynne Stewart was indicted for providing “material support” to an alleged “terrorist organization” under United States v. Ahmed Abdel Sattar. The indictment was based on a statement Stewart allegedly made at a press conference that her client, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, was withdrawing his support for a ceasefire between his organization — the Egyptian Islamic Group — and Egypt.

Demand PA DOC investigation

The prison’s attempts to stifle inmates’ legal representation is a problematic concern that should immediately be investigated by chief counsel of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Timothy Holmes. Officials should be prohibited from photocopying attorneys’ confidential documents, thereby violating attorney-client privileges.

Call Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Chief Counsel Timothy Holmes at 717-728-2574 to demand an investigation.