by Paul Wright
The ongoing effort to censor, control and surveil prisoners’ access to information is the topic of this month’s cover story. It is also providing a convenient means to deprive prisoners of access to most information and publications—especially anything that is related to minorities, whether political, …
by Paul Wright
As long as there have been prisons, the people who run them have endeavored to keep prisoners as ignorant, ill informed and cut off from the outside world as possible. At the same time, those in charge aim to ensure that all the bad news, …
by Paul Wright
The month before Prison Legal News published its first issue in May 1990, the Washington legislature became the first to enact civil commitment and sex offender registration in response to a series of horrific sex crimes by repeat offenders. We have been reporting on the …
by Paul Wright
This is the last issue of Prison Legal News (PLN) for 2025. It has been an eventful year all the way around. Two years ago, no one thought a convicted felon would be elected president of the United States, much less take office. Or that …
by Paul Wright
This month’s cover story is part of our ongoing coverage of barbaric conditions of confinement in American jails around the country. While American prisons tend to have a lot of problems keeping prisoners safe and healthy, jails tend to be much worse. With over 3,500 …
by Paul Wright
In the course of publishing PLN we file a lot of public records requests with local jails, state prisons and federal law enforcement agencies—hundreds every year. These requests result in the news coverage you are reading now as well as reports, audits, misconduct reports and …
After 35 years of publishing Prison Legal News, one thing that has become clear is that when it comes to the American criminal justice system, not all stories have an ending; some are fairly characterized as never-ending stories. We have reported on Rikers Island for …
Over the years Prison Legal News has reported extensively on the rape of prisoners around the country. In 35 years of publishing, about every 4- or 5-years prison systems have a major scandal at their local women’s prison where it comes to light that dozens of guards have raped or are raping scores or hundreds of women prisoners. For the past several years we have been reporting on the ongoing rapes, criminal prosecutions and civil litigation surrounding the massive rape of prisoners at the federal women’s prison in Dublin, California. This issue of PLN is a few days late because just as we were wrapping it up a few more guards were indicted and we updated the story with the details.
The Dublin rapes are unique in some respects. It has led to the biggest damages payout in the history of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). PLN has filed a FOIA request for a breakdown on the individual settlements and we will report it at a later date. Dozens of guards and staff, including the warden and chaplain have been charged and convicted of the rapes and dozens more investigations are still underway with more indictments coming. The …
While prisons cage the majority of American prisoners, jails around the country still hold around 600,000 on any given day and anywhere between five and ten million people cycle through them annually. The vast majority of people who enter and leave American jails are never convicted of a crime. …
by Paul Wright
This issue of PLN marks our 35th anniversary of publishing. Our first 8 issues were hand typed in two different maximum-security prison cells in Washington and sent to an outside volunteer to put together, photocopy and mail to 75 potential subscribers. Our start up budget …
