The Survivor Advocacy Project (SAP) builds generations of lawyers dedicated to preventing and combatting sexual harassment and violence. SAP provides the communities within UC Berkeley, the Bay Area, and beyond with legal support aimed at empowering and supporting survivors of sexual violence. SAP instills skills of prevention, advocacy, training, empathy, cultural competency, and healing.
PLSMA: SAP members on the PLSMA project will be working on a research and writing project with Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts. The project will involve analyzing the obligations under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). States that have opted to implement PREA requirements are legally obligated to provide a set of services to incarcerated individuals in their custody. While PREA outlines these services in broad terms, it also requires correctional agencies to establish detailed agreements with “outside emotional support agencies” that can deliver specific, critical services—such as crisis intervention hotline support, advocacy during sexual assault forensic exams, and accompaniment during investigational interviews.
However, despite these mandates, PREA does not provide comprehensive guidance on what these agreements should entail or how they should be implemented. The lack of clarity has resulted in a patchwork of inconsistent and sometimes inadequate agreements between rape crisis centers and correctional institutions. In Massachusetts, as in many other states, this has led to significant disparities: some correctional facilities fail to protect rape crisis counselor confidentiality as required by state and federal law, omit key services required by PREA, or neglect provisions for cross-training and facility access for advocates.
This situation has been further exacerbated by the Trump administration’s defunding of the PREA Resource Center—the primary body responsible for supporting states in PREA implementation. By eliminating funding, the administration weakened institutional support for compliance, guidance, and training, making it even harder for states and local agencies to meet their PREA obligations. Without the Resource Center’s technical assistance, oversight, and best-practice dissemination, agencies and service providers are left to navigate PREA compliance in a legal and logistical vacuum.
The goal of this project is to fill some of these gaps by helping rape crisis centers and correctional facilities better understand and meet their PREA obligations, ensuring that incarcerated survivors receive the protection, support, and dignity to which they are legally entitled.
ERA: The Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) is a nonprofit legal and advocacy organization based in San Francisco that works to advance gender justice by enforcing civil rights laws, challenging discrimination in schools and workplaces, and advocating for policy reforms like equal pay and paid leave. ERA focuses on issues such as Title IX, reproductive rights, workplace equity, and gender-based violence.
In recent years, ERA has partnered with SAP to work on research projects exploring how Title IX—a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal funding—can be used to address emerging issues. Past projects have looked at how Title IX might protect students from AI-generated deepfake revenge porn and how it can be leveraged to improve access to reproductive healthcare on college campuses.
While the research topic is not yet confirmed for the upcoming year, ERA is likely to continue research in similar areas. This collaboration gives SAP members the chance to contribute to real-world advocacy on timely and evolving civil rights issues.
Supervision: Students in SAP provide legal services under the supervision of attorneys from the Equal Rights Advocates and Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts.
Time Commitment: Approximately 20 hours per semester with a 1 hour weekly lunch meeting (day TBD).
For more information, please contact the student leaders at berkeleylawsap@law.berkeley.edu.