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Articles by Ed Mead

Monroe's Struggle Against Double Celling

Monroe's Struggle Against Double Celling: A Status Report

By Ed Mead

A flood of new rumors have been flying hot and heavy on the double celling status here at the Reformatory in Monroe. Some of these reports say there has been a negative change in the district court's order barring ...

Editorial

Editorial Comments

By Ed Mead

Welcome to another issue of our little newsletter. The first thing I want to do this month is extend a hearty expression of good wishes to one of our favorite outside readers, Jonathan Nelson, who is today serving 30 days in the Island County Jail ...

Getting Rid of the Board: Status of the Initiative Process

Getting Rid Of The Board: Status Of The Initiative Process

By Ed Mead

Back in the February issue we told readers that the Prison/Community Alliance (P/CA) and the PLN editors were in the process of drafting sample legislation that would abolish the Board and turn its functions over to the ...

Remembering Attica: Twenty Years Later

By Ed Mead

On September 13, 1978, prisoners at Walla Walla celebrated Attica Day by holding a sparsely attended memorial talent show in the prison's auditorium. On September 13, 1979, the Washington Coalition Against Prisons (WaCAP) braved heavy rain to stage a rally in Olympia to protest overcrowding and other ...

The Class Implications of Prisoner Rights Litigation

The Class Implications Of Prisoner Rights Litigation

Compiled by Ed Mead

Today the most reactionary and violent faction of the ruling class controls the government. These right-wing conservatives ignore the root causes of crime and instead seek to scapegoat prisoners and the poor for all sorts of social ills. And, ...

Editorial

Editorial Comments

By Ed Mead

Welcome to yet another edition of the PLN. In this issue I have an article on the class implications of prisoner rights litigation. It was written in response to one of many letters we get from readers asking about the politics of doing legal work ...

The Ex Post Facto Clause and Washington's Parole Board

By Ed Mead

Akins and another prisoner filed a civil rights complaint in federal court (pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983) alleging that the Georgia parole board's application of recently adopted rules to their cases violated their constitutional rights, specifically their substantive due process rights under the fourteenth amendment and ...

Editorial

Editorial Comments

By Ed Mead

First of all, I would like to share the situation and some of the thoughts of a former Palestinian prisoner, a man who was only recently released after having served l7 years in Israeli prisons. His name is Ali Mohammed Jiddah, and he was born ...

Editorial

Editorial Comments

By Ed Mead

The main production run of the Prisoners' Legal News is a mere 300 copies. The printing and mailing costs for last issue was a very low $173 ($63 for printing, $85 for postage, and $25 for various other expenses like phone calls and photocopying). Last ...

Local Deities, A Book Review

By Ed Mead

I've just finished reading a very good novel. And because the experience was so enjoyable, I would like to share a taste of it in the hopes that you, too, will read this book. The novel is Local Deities, written by Agnes Bushell and published in 1990 ...