"Sexual abuse is not an inevitable feature of incarceration. Leadership matters because corrections administrators can create a culture within facilities that promotes safety instead of one that tolerates abuse." – National Prison Rape Elimination Commission
A report released by Human Rights Watch in 2001, titled "No Escape: Male Rape in ...
In August 2012, Prison Legal News accepted an offer of judgment made by officials in Umatilla County, Oregon to resolve a First Amendment censorship suit filed against the county, the sheriff’s office and several sheriff’s employees.
Approximately two months earlier, PLN had filed suit in federal court alleging that the ...
Tennessee Board of Parole Chairman Charles Traughber, who had served almost four decades on the Board and had a reputation for ruling it with an iron hand, retired in June 2013. To fill Traughber's vacant position, Governor Bill Haslam selected Board member Richard Montgomery, 66, to serve as chairman. Montgomery ...
The New York state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYDOCCS) has settled a federal lawsuit filed by Prison Legal News that challenged the censorship of PLN's monthly publication, books and correspondence at New York prisons statewide.
PLN claimed in its complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the ...
As previously reported in Prison Legal News, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) has been experiencing higher levels of prisoner-on-prisoner and prisoner-on-staff violence since Commissioner Derrick Schofield was appointed in January 2011.
The increased violence coincides with a number of policy changes implemented by Schofield that are widely perceived as ...
On February 21, 2012, Prison Legal News settled a public records lawsuit filed in Vermont state court against Prison Health Services (PHS, now operating as Corizon Health, Inc.). As part of the settlement PHS agreed to produce records related to its resolution of legal claims against the company in Vermont, which included a total of $1.8 million in six cases.
PLN had filed suit against PHS on August 26, 2010 after the for-profit company, which provided medical care for Vermont state prisoners until the end of 2009, refused to produce documents pursuant to a public records request.
PLN requested copies of PHS’s contracts with government agencies in Vermont, records related to settlements and judgments that PHS had paid as a result of lawsuits and civil claims, and documents concerning costs incurred by PHS to defend against claims or lawsuits.
One of those claims involved the August 16, 2009 death of Ashley Ellis, 23, a Vermont prisoner who died at the Northwest State Correctional Facility just three days into a 30-day sentence. PHS employees had failed to give her potassium despite her repeated pleas for medical care and an order from her doctor. The medical examiner cited “denial of access to ...
by Alex Friedmann1
It’s an awful thing, solitary. It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.
— U.S. Senator John McCain, on his treatment as a P.O.W.2
On June 19, 2012, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, ...
Last January, the Center for Civic Media at MIT declared the work of Prison Legal News and PLN editor Paul Wright to be "The Front Line of the US Censorship Battle."
See: https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/456_displayNews.aspx
Interestingly, CCM provided the perfect prelude to another year of successful litigation, publication, coalition building and advocacy ...
On September 18, 2012 the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), the parent organization of Prison Legal News, released data indicating that levels of violence in Tennessee state prisons had increased approximately 20 percent since Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) Commissioner Derrick D. Schofield was appointed by Governor Bill Haslam in ...
On May 15, 2012, the ACLU of Hawaii filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) of unlawful discrimination by prohibiting four women from marrying Hawaii prisoners housed at a mainland facility.
According to the complaint, the women submitted multiple applications to wed their ...
