The Washington Lawyers' Committee D.C. Prisoners' Project receives nearly 2,000 requests from prisoners across the United States each year.

The fact that their clients are so geographically dispersed poses one of the biggest challenges, said Deborah Golden, the project's director. This year, the project received assistance from the D.C. Bar Foundation to help ease the financial burden.

“It's incredibly expensive to stay in touch with them, write them, accept collect calls from them, provide them the materials they need. Even seeing someone locally takes quite a bit of effort,” Golden said. “Without the support of the D.C. Bar Foundation, we wouldn't be able to sustain that.”