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Articles by Dan Pens

From the Editor

Prison population growth is an oft-cited statistic. Since most PLN readers are either imprisoned or otherwise closely involved with the U.S. "corrections" industry, it is easy for them to readily appreciate the concrete (and steel) meaning of prison population stats. Here is a familiar one: according to the Bureau of ...

Virginia Warden Stabbed

In the December 1996 issue of PLN we reported, "Botched Escape Sparks Rebellion," about an attempted escape and prison uprising at the Nottoway Correctional Center in Virginia. Cited in that article was the high level of tension in the Virginia prison system due, in part, to the January 1, 1997 ...

Florida Private Prison Criticized

by Glenn Wright and Dan Pens

Louisville, Kentucky based private prison vendor U.S. Corrections Corporation (USCC) was sharply criticized by Florida's Auditor General in three separate reports issued by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA). The reports were the result of state audits of Gadsden Correctional ...

From the Editor

Welcome to another issue of PLN. I just finished typing this month's installment of "A Matter of Fact" (AMF), something I enjoy immensely. Since we started this feature last year, it has received mixed reviews. Readers have said it was a "waste of space," and "the most stupid column I ...

From the Editor

Welcome to another issue of PLN. I just finished typing this month's installment of "A Matter of Fact" (AMF), something I enjoy immensely. Since we started this feature last year, it has received mixed reviews. Readers have said it was a "waste of space," and "the most stupid column I ...

CDC Trying to Polish Tarnished Image

The editors of PLN receive newspaper clippings from all over the U.S. We recently received articles clipped from about a dozen California newspapers. The articles appeared in the same week and all were strikingly similar. They were about how California Department of Corrections (CDC) prison guards are facing stronger disciplinary ...

From the Editor

Welcome to PLN's eighth year of publication. We're proud that we have published longer than any other independent prisoner publication we know of. You should be proud, too. You're the ones who have made it possible. Recently we conducted an "Emergency Relief" direct mail fundraiser. Many of you responded promptly ...

From the Editor

Welcome to another issue of PLN . If you read these editorials often, you've no doubt noticed that we usually mention that PLN is entirely reader supported and we need donations from you. Somehow you always manage to send "just enough." And we manage to make ends meet. Lately, though, ...

UNICOR Hogs Body Armor Market

In the July '96 issue of PLN we published "Furniture Manufacturers Threatened by UNICOR," an article about how Federal Prison Industries, Inc. (FPI, which uses the trade name UNICOR), dramatically expanded its "market share" of furniture sold to the military and government agencies and how the expanded use of federal ...

From the Editor

Welcome to another edition of PLN. Last month we intended to run Jaan Laaman's article, "Attica - Looking Back 25 Years," which appears on page of this issue. Due to a prison lockdown, Jaan was unable to get the article to us in time for the September issue. I hope ...