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Article • February 1, 2026 • from PLN February, 2026
Arkansas Bans Outside Reading Material Sent to Prisons by Jo Ellen Nott by Jo Ellen Knott In a move that further isolates prisoners from the outside world, the Arkansas Board of Corrections (BOC) voted unanimously on December 19, 2025, to ban all externally purchased books, magazines, and newspapers sent directly …
Article • February 1, 2026 • from PLN February, 2026
United States Postal Service Declares Postmarks Could Be Delayed by On December 24, 2025, the United States Postal Service (USPS) rolled out a new practice regarding how mail is tracked and dated. While for more than 70 years a postmark has been a reliable way of proving when an individual …
Most U.S. Prisoners Now Barred from Directly Receiving Physical Mail by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman In just over seven years, changes in prison mail policies proliferating across the country have severely restricted mail privileges at lockups holding the majority of America’s nearly 1.2 million prisoners. According to research conducted …
Article • February 1, 2026 • from PLN February, 2026
HRDC Sues Minnesota DOC Over Censorship Policy by Robert Haughn by Robert Haughn On January 7, 2025, the Human Right Defense Center (HRDC), nonprofit publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, accusing Commissioner Paul Schnell of the Minnesota …
HRDC Sues Washington Jail for Rejecting PLN and Other Publications by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman On November 25, 2025, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), nonprofit publisher of PLN and Criminal Legal News (CLN), filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, accusing Walla …
Article • January 1, 2026 • from PLN January, 2026
HRDC Sues New Mexico County for Violating 10-­Year-­Old Settlement of Censorship Suit by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman A decade after PLN secured a settlement halting censorship of soft-­cover books at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in New Mexico’s Bernalillo County, its nonprofit publisher headed back to court on December …
Class Certified in Challenge to Mailed Book Ban at Indianapolis Jail by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman On June 13, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted class certification to a complaint filed against the Marion County Sheriff, alleging that there is a de facto …
Louisiana Prisoner Granted Preliminary Injunction in Challenge to Jail Book Ban by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman Finding that the “library” at Tensas Parish Detention Center (TPDC) “is nothing more than a nominal designation,” the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana granted a prisoner’s request for a …
New Hampshire Guard Abuse and Theft Uncovered Through Poaching Investigation by A major investigation conducted by New Hampshire Fish and Game officials found not only an extensive illegal poaching ring but a trove of evidence of guards at a state prison abusing prisoners, falsifying records, and potential drug trafficking. Yet, …
Article • August 1, 2025 • from PLN August, 2025
From the Editor by Paul Wright   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 …
Article • August 1, 2025 • from PLN August, 2025
Sixth Circuit Holds Dismissal Not Automatic When Plaintiff Simultaneously Files Same Claims in State Court by Anthony Accurso The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of a plaintiff’s claim of retaliation, finding the district court misapplied a waiver doctrine that prevented persons from …
Article • July 15, 2025 • from PLN July, 2025
Ohio Sued by Non-Profit Law Firm for Opening Prisoner Legal Mail by On May 6, 2025, the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, a non-profit law firm, filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DRC) over the practice of intercepting mail between prisoners and their attorneys. The …
Article • June 1, 2025 • from PLN June, 2025
Arkansas DOC Settles Retaliation Claim by Prisoner Who Also Won Back Confiscated COVID-19 Stimulus by After the Arkansas Department of Corrections (DOC) reached a settlement with state prisoner Anthony Lamar in his retaliation claim against officials at the Varner Unit, the federal court for the Eastern District of Arkansas granted …
Article • June 1, 2025 • from PLN June, 2025
Smart Communications Files for Bankruptcy Protection by Smart Communications Holding, Inc., provides a variety of communications services in prisons and jails nationwide, including phone calls, video calling, tablets and e-messaging. It’s best known for its mail scanning program, MailGuard, which digitizes correspondence sent to prisoners and provides the scans on …
Article • June 1, 2025 • from PLN June, 2025
$50,000 for Excessive Force Claim by Maryland Prisoner Who Used to Be a Guard by On March 19, 2025, an agreement was reached paying $50,000 to a Maryland prisoner—who is also a former Baltimore jailer—to settle his claim that he was subjected to excessive force by a guard at Western …
BOP Jettisons Transgender Offender Manual by In a memo dated February 25, 2025, acting federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director William Lothrop canceled the agency’s Transgender Offender Manual and ordered its removal from federal prison libraries and the BOP intranet. The move is the latest attempt to comply with an …
No Opened Envelopes: Hawai’i Prisons Get New Mail Scanning Technology by The Hawai’i Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) announced in September 2024 that it would purchase nine machines to scan inbound prisoner mail—including legal mail—for drugs. The new scanners claim to detect letters soaked with drugs without opening envelopes. …
Article • March 1, 2025 • from PLN March, 2025
California Lawmakers Address CDCR’s Banned Book List by Corrections officials usually limit what prisoners are allowed to read. A 2022 report by the nonprofit Marshall Project found that half the United States maintains lists of prohibited publications. California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has some 3,000 disapproved books and …
Article • February 15, 2025 • from PLN February, 2025
Sixth Circuit: Leaman Doctrine Did Not Bar Ohio Prisoner’s Pro Se Federal Civil Rights Suit Over Interference with Legal Mail by In an important decision on February 6, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that an Ohio prisoner’s federal civil rights claims against state …
Article • January 15, 2025 • from PLN January, 2025
Pigeonly Flies Into Telecom Turbulence, Declares Bankruptcy by Pigeonly, Inc., a prison communication startup founded by former prisoner Frederick Hutson, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on January 26, 2024, in United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada in Las Vegas. Pigeonly contracts with jails and prisons to …
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