Raymond "Rasheed" Wallace is a legal advocate and paralegal with an extensive record of using the law to fight for justice on behalf of incarcerated individuals, particularly those who can benefit from his strong command of the English language. His legal journey began out of necessity when, during his first criminal matter, he conducted his own research that led to a successful Mapp hearing and favorable plea negotiations. He went on to serve as a law library clerk at Green Haven Correctional Facility, where he assisted justice-impacted individuals and their families with legal research, FOIL requests, Article 78 petitions, sentencing memorandums, CPL § 440.20 motions, and error coram nobis motions. His decade-long pro se litigation on a wrongful confinement claim was validated in September 2024, when he was awarded monetary damages in Raymond Wallace v. New York State.
Raymond served as president of the Pinpoint Organization from 2017 to 2023, organizing incarcerated peers around programs that best served the prison population while negotiating directly with facility administration. For nine years, he worked as a youth development counselor with the Youth Assistance Program, engaging with drug court participants, law students, law enforcement, and mental health professionals to challenge misconceptions about incarcerated people. Most recently, he collaborated with the Prisoner Legal Advocacy Network (PLAN) to draft an affidavit documenting prisoners' lack of access to rehabilitative programs and legal resources amid a correctional strike.
Raymond holds a Master’s of Professional Studies in Urban Ministry from New York Theological Seminary (2024), a Bachelor of General Studies cum laude with minors in Communications and Applied Psychology from Ball State University, and a New York State Legal Research and Law Library Management Certification. He has also completed coursework at Columbia University and holds certifications in peer counseling and workplace preparation. In April 2024, he delivered a featured address at Hudson Link's Beyond the Block event, advocating publicly for the passage of New York's Second Look Act — continuing a campaign he began in 2019 when he wrote to all 62 of New York State's district attorneys urging the creation of sentence review units. Most recently, Raymond coauthored, along with several incarcerated scholars and Professor Fredrica Coppola, the book The Real Pain of Punishment: Prison, Belonging, and the Quest for Humanized Justice (Cambridge University Press, June, 2026). Raymond is currently incarcerated at SingSing Correctional Facility and is seeking gubernatorial executive clemency as a means of relief from his current conviction and incarceration.