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From The Editor
By Paul Wright
Welcome to the tenth issue of PLN . As our readers may recall issues 6, 7 and 8 of Vol. 1 of PLN had been censored by prisoncrats at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, WA. The excuse they had given for this censorship was that the article about the dog running wild in #7 and the drawing of the pig were a "threat to security" and that PLN's solicitation of stamps to help cover our expenses was "in violation of institutional rules." This was appealed to the Director of Prisons, Larry Kincheloe and he overruled the decisions by his minions at Shelton and those issues of PLN have been delivered. So hopefully that issue of censorship has been resolved.
PLN is still banned in Texas by the Texas Department of Corrections. The attorney representing the class of prisoners in the Guajardo class action is currently investigating the matter and so far the Texas attorney general has not responded to his letters. The TDC has a long history of censoring prisoner rights publications and has lost the issue several times in court, but apparently they keep trying to get away with it. We will keep our readers posted of our continuing struggle against censorship. By the way, for our prisoner readers information, in the event that any issues of PLN addressed to you are censored or denied to you by your captors we encourage and support all efforts made on your part to receive PLN . Our publisher will administratively appeal all rejections as soon as notice is received and you are encouraged to do the same. We have a sample suit drafted to assist you in litigating the matter in the event that administrative appeals are ineffective. We also have a listing of federal cases that deal with censorship by prison officials. Just write to either Ed or myself directly or in care of our publisher and we will send you the information you need.
PLN is anti-copyright. Readers are free to copy and reproduce PLN to their hearts content. If you quote us in a publication please give us credit as the source. We want to expand our readership and our circulation, so if you like PLN share us with your family and friends, don't keep it a secret! If you know of any bookstores that might be interested in carrying PLN we can make bulk issues of PLN available to them for sale/distribution as long at they cover the postage costs. Same goes for individuals wanting bulk issues to distribute to friends and interested persons.
If there is anything happening at the prison you are at or that is related to the "criminal justice" (or injustice) system, write to us and let us know about it so we can share it with our readers. Try to be brief as we don't have a lot of room. Don't worry about spelling or grammar or if you've never written an "article" before. We ask that you submit articles and such to us in a timely fashion, in other words, don't wait until December to tell us about incidents that happened in June. We have about a 4 to 6 week lead time between each issue, the lead time is so long because of the fact that Ed and I are both in prison and subject to the jackboot of repression and censorship that most editors aren't, i.e. segregation units, transfers, etc., so we need the lead time to avoid disruptions of our production schedule (which makes timeliness all the more important).
As we reported in our last issue, Washington state now has a small outside support group of prisoner's family and friends. It is the Prison/Community Alliance , P.O. Box 276, Kent, WA 98035. It will be focusing on issues such as getting rid of the parole board. We encourage our Washington state readers to support PCA and get involved with it. For more information call 859-4937 and ask for Carrie. Prisoners and loved ones need a voice to be heard in this state.
Also available is a listing of groups and publications which support prisoner's rights and prison struggle in over 20 countries. The list shows the groups name and address, if they have a publication, what language the publication is in and if it's free to prisoners (nearly all are) or how much it's prisoner rate is. If you want a copy send a SASE to me or to our publisher with a note saying it's for the prisoner rights list.
Please continue to send us donations of money and stamps as we need that to keep publishing, we don't have any corporate or government benefactors.
Welcome to the tenth issue of PLN . As our readers may recall issues 6, 7 and 8 of Vol. 1 of PLN had been censored by prisoncrats at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, WA. The excuse they had given for this censorship was that the article about the dog running wild in #7 and the drawing of the pig were a "threat to security" and that PLN's solicitation of stamps to help cover our expenses was "in violation of institutional rules." This was appealed to the Director of Prisons, Larry Kincheloe and he overruled the decisions by his minions at Shelton and those issues of PLN have been delivered. So hopefully that issue of censorship has been resolved.
PLN is still banned in Texas by the Texas Department of Corrections. The attorney representing the class of prisoners in the Guajardo class action is currently investigating the matter and so far the Texas attorney general has not responded to his letters. The TDC has a long history of censoring prisoner rights publications and has lost the issue several times in court, but apparently they keep trying to get away with it. We will keep our readers posted of our continuing struggle against censorship. By the way, for our prisoner readers information, in the event that any issues of PLN addressed to you are censored or denied to you by your captors we encourage and support all efforts made on your part to receive PLN . Our publisher will administratively appeal all rejections as soon as notice is received and you are encouraged to do the same. We have a sample suit drafted to assist you in litigating the matter in the event that administrative appeals are ineffective. We also have a listing of federal cases that deal with censorship by prison officials. Just write to either Ed or myself directly or in care of our publisher and we will send you the information you need.
PLN is anti-copyright. Readers are free to copy and reproduce PLN to their hearts content. If you quote us in a publication please give us credit as the source. We want to expand our readership and our circulation, so if you like PLN share us with your family and friends, don't keep it a secret! If you know of any bookstores that might be interested in carrying PLN we can make bulk issues of PLN available to them for sale/distribution as long at they cover the postage costs. Same goes for individuals wanting bulk issues to distribute to friends and interested persons.
If there is anything happening at the prison you are at or that is related to the "criminal justice" (or injustice) system, write to us and let us know about it so we can share it with our readers. Try to be brief as we don't have a lot of room. Don't worry about spelling or grammar or if you've never written an "article" before. We ask that you submit articles and such to us in a timely fashion, in other words, don't wait until December to tell us about incidents that happened in June. We have about a 4 to 6 week lead time between each issue, the lead time is so long because of the fact that Ed and I are both in prison and subject to the jackboot of repression and censorship that most editors aren't, i.e. segregation units, transfers, etc., so we need the lead time to avoid disruptions of our production schedule (which makes timeliness all the more important).
As we reported in our last issue, Washington state now has a small outside support group of prisoner's family and friends. It is the Prison/Community Alliance , P.O. Box 276, Kent, WA 98035. It will be focusing on issues such as getting rid of the parole board. We encourage our Washington state readers to support PCA and get involved with it. For more information call 859-4937 and ask for Carrie. Prisoners and loved ones need a voice to be heard in this state.
Also available is a listing of groups and publications which support prisoner's rights and prison struggle in over 20 countries. The list shows the groups name and address, if they have a publication, what language the publication is in and if it's free to prisoners (nearly all are) or how much it's prisoner rate is. If you want a copy send a SASE to me or to our publisher with a note saying it's for the prisoner rights list.
Please continue to send us donations of money and stamps as we need that to keep publishing, we don't have any corporate or government benefactors.
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