A recent Associated Press story reported that the state of Wisconsin is spending more than a million dollars a year defending lawsuits filed by prison inmates. The story identified two Waupun prisoners as "serial litigators," responsible for numerous legal actions. A state lawyer was quoted as saying the amount of ...
Letters from Readers
[One of the objectives of the PLN is to become a forum through which readers can express opinions on what they've read, or to point out issues we should be addressing. Paul and I feel it is important for there to be a dialogue with our readers, ...
By Adrian Lomax
In the late 1980's, administrators at Waupun, Wisconsin's largest prison, devised a grand scheme to increase the difficulties facing any prisoner attempting to vindicate his rights in court. In May, 1988, the keep disbanded the Paralegal Base Committee (PBC), an organization made up of inmate paralegals who ...
By Adrian Lomax
In an encouraging decision, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that prisoners employed by the industry program in Arizona state prisons must be paid minimum wage.
Arizona prisoners are required by statute to "engage in hard labor for not less than forty hours per ...
In the middle of May, 1992, the Wisconsin DOC distributed a new set of property rules to all prisoners. It contained a lot of new restrictions but the most significant is that the total amount of property a prisoner may possess must fit into a footlocker measuring 32" x 16" ...
By Adrian Lomax
Steven Asherman was doing a fourteen-year bit for manslaughter in the Connecticut prison system. After he had served three years, the keep [guards] approved Asherman's application for Supervised Home Release. SHR is not parole, but an intensive supervision program similar to those involving electronic monitoring. Asherman lived ...
Pleas For Medical Attention Ignored
By Adrian Lomax
[Editorial Note :While medical neglect by our captors is nothing new, we are printing this piece because of the commonness of the events described, not because it is "news " to those of us on the inside .]
On the evening of ...
By Adrian Lomax
Ayear ago bills were introduced in both houses of the Wisconsin legislature that would have changed the state's public records law so that prisoners would no longer have any right to inspect government records, including those maintained by the Department of Corrections. The bills were introduced, at ...
