From the Editor
by Paul Wright
The sexual assault of prisoners is such a common and widespread occurrence throughout the American gulag that it is basically an ingrained management policy at every level. And this has been the case for decades, if not longer. This month’s cover story reports on the biggest detention facility settlement in American history involving the sexual assault of children in juvenile detention facilities run by the county of Los Angeles. Children are uniquely vulnerable to physical and sexual assaults by staff and other prisoners alike. All too many children “graduate” from the juvenile to the adult prison system as well.
Besides rape, the other constant in the American prison and jail system is the ongoing lack of adequate medical and mental health care and treatment—a problem further compounded by the government increasingly outsourcing prison medical care to private, for-profit entities. This issue reports some of the recent developments on this front.
I am pleased to report that we are publishing a new, third edition of the book Protecting Your Health and Safety: A Litigation Guide for Prisoners. HRDC has distributed the book for over 25 years and after the original publisher decided to stop publishing it, we have taken over the publishing and have updated the content as well as designed a new cover for it. The book is going to the printer at the same time this issue of PLN is going to press and should be available for purchase within 30 days or so for $34.99 from Prison Legal News. The book focuses on the Eighth amendment right of prisoners and pre-trial detainees to be free from violence by staff and other prisoners as well as the right to medical care and treatment. The book was originally written by Georgia prisoner rights attorney Robert Toone, who tragically died in a car accident many years ago. The third edition has been updated by Daniel Manville, a long-time prisoner rights attorney himself and the co-author of the Prisoners Self Help Litigation Manual.
If you have had money taken from a prepaid prison or jail phone account for inactivity, due to being released or moved or for other reasons, and are interested in filing suit, please contact us. Likewise, if you have been released from prison or jail and been given your own money on a debit card which charged you fees to access your own money. The Human Rights Defense Center, which publishes PLN, continues fighting against the financial exploitation of prisoners and their families by private corporations and their government collaborators.
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