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From the Editor
In January the Washington prison system implemented new mail censorship rules. This is in line with the national trend by prisons and jails who seek to cut off the flow of information to prisoners and also keep outsiders as ignorant as possible of what is happening behind prison walls.
Among the changes is a ban on prisoner-to-prisoner correspondence. This means prisoners cannot write to Dan or myself directly, and vice versa, as was done in the past. Letters sent to Dan or myself with a prison return address on the envelope or which are sent to PLN for forwarding to us with a prison number or facility name in the address or which are not written in the third person (i.e., if they say the author is a prisoner) will most likely be censored by our captors. Communications intended for the editors should be sent to PLN and should be separate from that pertaining to book orders, subscriptions, etc.
PLN will, of course, continue publishing as before. The only difference is that a lot of the prisoner mail that Dan and I used to respond to will now most likely go unanswered until the ban on prisoner-to-prisoner mail is changed or PLN has the financial resources to hire another staff person to handle this type of mail.
Over the years PLN has had little luck getting grants to support our work. If any of our readers have experience in grant writing and would like to assist us in this area as volunteers please contact Dan or myself. PLN needs to fund a second staff position and absent a grant it is unlikely we will be able to do so for the foreseeable future.
I would like to thank those readers that have alerted us to jury verdicts and settlements in favor of prisoner plaintiffs. Many of these cases are never reported by other sources. If you or someone you know settles a case or wins at trial, let us know about it so we can inform our readers of these important victories. This is especially true for lawyers who litigate against prisons and jails on a regular basis.
As always, we ask that our subscribers let others know about PLN and encourage them to subscribe. Increasing PLN 's subscriber base is crucial for PLN 's longterm survival.
Among the changes is a ban on prisoner-to-prisoner correspondence. This means prisoners cannot write to Dan or myself directly, and vice versa, as was done in the past. Letters sent to Dan or myself with a prison return address on the envelope or which are sent to PLN for forwarding to us with a prison number or facility name in the address or which are not written in the third person (i.e., if they say the author is a prisoner) will most likely be censored by our captors. Communications intended for the editors should be sent to PLN and should be separate from that pertaining to book orders, subscriptions, etc.
PLN will, of course, continue publishing as before. The only difference is that a lot of the prisoner mail that Dan and I used to respond to will now most likely go unanswered until the ban on prisoner-to-prisoner mail is changed or PLN has the financial resources to hire another staff person to handle this type of mail.
Over the years PLN has had little luck getting grants to support our work. If any of our readers have experience in grant writing and would like to assist us in this area as volunteers please contact Dan or myself. PLN needs to fund a second staff position and absent a grant it is unlikely we will be able to do so for the foreseeable future.
I would like to thank those readers that have alerted us to jury verdicts and settlements in favor of prisoner plaintiffs. Many of these cases are never reported by other sources. If you or someone you know settles a case or wins at trial, let us know about it so we can inform our readers of these important victories. This is especially true for lawyers who litigate against prisons and jails on a regular basis.
As always, we ask that our subscribers let others know about PLN and encourage them to subscribe. Increasing PLN 's subscriber base is crucial for PLN 's longterm survival.
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