PLN frequently reports on litigation and news arising from jails. This month's cover story, America's Jails: The Dungeons of the New Millenium , takes a broad look at the problems afflicting American jails: brutality, overcrowding, medical neglect, corruption, sexual assaults, etc. In many respects jails are like prisons, but there ...
As the accompanying article, Not Part of My Sentence , makes clear, the sexual abuse of female prisoners by male prison employees is an endemic problem. As past issues of PLN show, this problem is not confined to any single state or prison system, but is national in scope.
Surprisingly, ...
September, 2001, marks the 30th anniversary of the modern prisoner rights movement in the United States. In September, 1971, prisoners in Attica, New York, rose up to protest horrendous conditions. The uprising occurred after peaceful means of protest had failed and prisoners refused to be "driven like beasts" any longer. ...
With this issue of PLN we are back on our normal publishing schedule. Readers should be receiving their copy of PLN around the first of the issue month.
A reminder to our prisoner readers, if prison officials censor your PLN subscription please let us know because PLN is usually not ...
Welcome to another issue of PLN. Right now we are still focused on getting our publishing schedule back on track so that readers receive their issue around the beginning of the issue's calender date. We expect to be back on schedule by July.
As mentioned in the April, 2001, editorial, ...
In a four-month period between September, 2000 and January, 2001, the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) was hit with separate jury verdicts for $22.4 and $15 million and settled two additional cases for $8.8 million. All four lawsuits stem from the DOC's negligent supervision of parolees in its care. The ...
In addition to almost $50 million in settlements and verdicts assessed against the Washington DOC in recent months, the Washington DOC has paid an additional $20.6 million to settle 25 parole liability cases and pay one jury verdict since 1994. Apparently, the state had previously been able to buy off ...
Welcome to PLN's 132nd consecutive issue. May 2001, marks PLN's eleventh anniversary. In that time period PLN has grown from a 10 page, hand typed, photocopied newsletter to its current magazine format and size.
As reported in last month's editorial, things at PLN have been hectic in the aftermath of ...
From The Editor
by Paul Wright
Recently PLN has not been publishing on its usual schedule. There have been a number of unforeseen developments lately that have caused this. In October 2000, the behavior of Fred Markham, PLN's office manager at the time, became increasingly erratic. He closed PLN's Seattle ...
The court of appeals for the Ninth circuit held that the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) ban on third class standard non-profit mail (AKA bulk mail) was unconstitutional and violated the First amendment rights of publishers and prisoners alike. The court also held that the sender and recipient of third ...
