Alice Trappler

Alice Trappler is a dedicated paralegal assistant and law clerk at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility law library. Since 2013, she has been an advocate for incarcerated individuals, especially women, using her voice and expertise to support a variety of causes. Alice has served multiple terms as an elected member of the Incarcerated Liaison Committee and has been an active participant in the PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) focus group. She is also a Team Leader and puppy raiser for the Puppies Behind Bars program and co-instructs a basic legal research course.

Alice provides invaluable assistance, guidance, and encouragement to incarcerated women facing complex legal challenges, including maintaining parental rights, addressing medical claims, navigating divorce, accessing records through FOIL and FOIA requests, and pursuing judicial reviews for issues such as prison nursery participation, disciplinary actions, and parole. She also supports individuals with criminal appeals, state and federal pro se filings, and accessing the courts.

Alice contributed to the SJP DVSJA Resource Guide by offering her insights and reviewing its contents. Through her frontline work in the law library, she helps criminalized survivors understand the application of the DVSJA, while providing compassionate guidance to prevent the re-traumatization often caused by imprisonment. Alice is committed to exposing the harsh realities of prison conditions, highlighting systemic disparities, and challenging misconceptions about the criminal justice system. She works tirelessly to raise awareness of the additional trauma, re-victimization of survivors, and the prevalence of wrongful convictions.

Alice has played a key role in securing policy changes within the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) through Central Office Review Committee decisions, achieving favorable outcomes in multiple court cases. Currently, she is engaged in a legal battle against the systemic impoverishment of the incarcerated, with her own case reopened and under review. Alice continues to fight for her freedom, hoping to reunite with her daughter and parents, rebuild her life, and continue her advocacy work from the outside.

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Rev. Sharon White-Harrigan, Advisor