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Please Stop "Reforming" Pelican Bay
Please Stop "Reforming" Pelican Bay
by Maya Schenwar
"I took my first photograph last November. That's one picture in 17 years," Pelican Bay prisoner Jimmy Flores writes to me. He lives in the California prison's Secure Housing Units (SHUs) – solitary confinement – where he passes 22.5 hours per day …
by Maya Schenwar
"I took my first photograph last November. That's one picture in 17 years," Pelican Bay prisoner Jimmy Flores writes to me. He lives in the California prison's Secure Housing Units (SHUs) – solitary confinement – where he passes 22.5 hours per day …
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More from this issue:
- An Innocent Man Speaks: PLN Interviews Jeff Deskovic
- Report: BOP Fails to Monitor Effects, Conditions of Segregated Housing, by Derek Gilna
- From the Editor, by Paul Wright
- Supreme Court Holds Padilla Not Retroactive, by Derek Gilna
- Sixth Circuit Addresses Spoliation Sanction Standard
- Please Stop "Reforming" Pelican Bay, by Maya Schenwar
- West Virginia Court-Supervised Parole and Condition Barring Association with Spouse Upheld
- Federal Court Orders California to Release 9,600 More Prisoners, by John Dannenberg
- Fourth Circuit: Sex Offender Registration Not "Custody" for Section 2254 Jurisdiction
- Federal Court Rules Against Alabama DOC in Class-action HIV Discrimination Suit
- Canadian Prisoners Receive $3.5 Million in Settlements, by Derek Gilna
- HRDC Invited to Speak at Unprecedented FCC Workshop on Prison Phone Rates, by David Ganim
- Fifth Circuit Upholds Dismissal of PLN's Censorship Suit Against TDCJ, by Matthew Clarke
- Trial Held in Texas Prison Courtroom Not Open to the Public
- Millions in Security Equipment Wasted at Rikers Island
- Qualified Immunity Denied to Nurses who Ignored Prisoner's Symptoms of Active TB; $2.28 Million in Damages, Fees and Costs on Remand
- Supreme Court Upholds DNA Collection as Part of Jail Booking Procedures, by J.R. Bloom
- New Tennessee Parole Board Members have Apparent Bias Against Granting Parole, by Alex Friedmann
- HRDC Receives First Amendment Award
- No Justice: Sex Offenses, No Matter How Minor or Understandable, Can Ruin You for Life, by Charlotte Silver
- California Jail Installs New Microgrid to Cut Energy Costs, by Derek Gilna
- Genetic and DNA Evidence: The Emperor Has No Clothes, by Ernest P. Chiodo
- Third Circuit: Requiring Admission of Guilt to Participate in Mandatory-for-Parole SOTP Not a Fifth Amendment Violation, by Matthew Clarke
- Montana Town Gives up on Failed Jail Venture
- Seventh Circuit Remands Illinois Prisoner's Hernia Case for New Trial
- "Mere Possession" of a Prison Shank Constitutes a "Crime of Violence", by Derek Gilna
- Seventh Circuit Remands Case Concerning Treatment of Prisoner's Hemorrhoids
- Suicides at CCA-run ICE Detention Center Spark Investigation, by Derek Gilna
- Longest-Serving Texas Prisoner Makes Parole; Other Long-term Prisoners Not so "Lucky"
- DC Circuit: Qualified Immunity for Retroactive U.S. Parole Commission Regulations
- Seventh Circuit: Health Hazard without Physical Injury Can State a Claim
- Mexican Prison Guards Implicated in Deadly Riot
- Louisiana Supreme Court Reverses Sentence for Escape, but Sentence Affirmed on Remand
- Blowup at KPFT Radio's "Prison Show" in Texas
- Seventh Circuit Asks Illinois Supreme Court to Interpret "Frivolous" Litigation Statute
- New York Federal Court Finds Victim's Hearsay Accusation Insufficient in Prison Disciplinary Case; Suit Settles for $67,000, by Matthew Clarke
- Jail Detainee Dies after Altercation with Deputies at Arizona Jail
- Utah DOC Ends "English Only" Visitation Requirement, by Christopher Zoukis
- News in Brief
More from Maya Schenwar:
- Your Home Is Your Prison: How to Lock Down Your Neighborhood, Your Country, and You, Jan. 20, 2015
- Please Stop "Reforming" Pelican Bay, Aug. 15, 2013
- 35,948 Arrested Yesterday, May 15, 2012
- Slavery Haunts America's Plantation Prisons, by Maya Schenwar, April 15, 2009
- The Fall of the Presidential Pardon, by Maya Schenwar, April 15, 2009
More from these topics:
- Mississippi DOC Held Mentally Unwell Prisoners in Solitary, Many Died Because of It, Sept. 1, 2026. Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Suicides, Staff Training, Deliberate Indifference.
- States Claim to Invest in “Humane” New Prisons— But Prisons Were Never Humane, Sept. 1, 2026. Retaliation for Organizing, Hunger Strikes, Protests, Failure to Treat, Immigration Detention.
- Isolation and Medical Neglect at Illinois’ Joliet Treatment Center Drive Prisoners to Set Fatal Fires, Sept. 1, 2026. Systemic Medical Neglect, Security Systems, Medical Neglect/Malpractice, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness).
- Court Shuts Down Arizona Attempt to Fill Medical Staff Vacancies with Under-Qualified Providers, Sept. 1, 2026. Systemic Medical Neglect, Staffing, Injunctions, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness).
- Troubled Illinois Lockup Sees Guard Abuses, Prisoners on Hunger Strike, Sept. 1, 2026. Hunger Strikes, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Pepper Spray/Tear Gas, Restraints, Administrative Detention/Segregation.
- Oregon Agrees to $2.3 Million Settlement After Guards Toss Mentally Ill Prisoner in Solitary, Taunt Him Until He Kills Himself, Aug. 1, 2026. Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Suicides, 42 U.S. Code § 1983, civil action for deprivation of rights, Deliberate Indifference.
- Seventh Circuit Holds Federal Law Prohibits County Jail from Forcing Immigration Detainees to Perform Custodial Labor by Threatening Solitary Confinement, Aug. 1, 2026. Prison Labor, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Statutory Construction/Interpretation, Immigration Detention, Monell Liability.
- Prisoners’ Risk of Death In Custody More than Doubles in Solitary Confinement, July 1, 2026. Statistics/Trends, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Confinement in Segregated Housing, Administrative Detention/Segregation.
- Ombuds Report Doesn’t Rule Out Racism or Retaliation at Red Onion State Prison, June 1, 2026. Guard Misconduct, Racial Discrimination, Retaliation for Filing Grievances, Failure to Treat, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement.
- $250,000 Paid by Maine to Former Prisoner Held in Solitary Confinement—Which the State DOC Says Doesn’t Exist, June 1, 2026. DOC/BOP misconduct, Americans with Disabilities Act, Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Cruel and Unusual Punishment.