Michele Luecking-Sunman is a program director at the National PREA Resource Center focusing on audit oversight and is legal counsel for Impact Justice. Before joining Impact Justice, Michele spent more than 15 years advocating and litigating on behalf of incarcerated people as an attorney with North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services (NCPLS).
As a staff attorney at NCPLS, Michele’s caseload focused heavily on women who were sexually abused by employees of the prison system. Following multiple high impact cases, and with the cooperation of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, Michele helped to craft significant reforms related to sexual safety practices in North Carolina’s women’s prisons. The implementation of these reforms coincided with the advent of the PREA standards in North Carolina and provided a strong basis for fundamental change in men’s facilities as well.
Michele became the civil litigation managing attorney at NCPLS in 2012 and worked with a team of lawyers and paralegals to challenge unsafe and inhumane conditions in North Carolina’s prisons. In addition to pursuing sexual safety cases throughout her career, Michele has litigated excessive use of force, First Amendment, medical, and disability cases. Michele received a juris doctor from Georgia State University College of Law.