The first issue of Prisoners’ Legal News (PLN) was published in May 1990. It was hand-typed, photocopied and ten pages long, and mailed to 75 potential subscribers with a budget of $50. The first three issues were banned in all Washington state prisons, the first 18 in all ...
From the Editor
by Paul Wright
It doesn’t seem like this is the 301st issue of Prison Legal News. When we published our first issue in 1990 I didn’t have an expectation of how long the publication would last nor did I think about its longevity very much. ...
From the Editor
by Paul Wright
In 25 years of publishing Prison Legal News, we have reported a number of recurring themes where the only specifics that change are the names, dates and locations. But the broader issues – prison slavery, government corruption, guards raping prisoners, brutality, medical neglect, ...
From the Editor
by Paul Wright
This month’s cover story reports on the relatively recent phenomenon of video visitation. While video visits are technologically new, the underlying principle upon which they are being implemented is not.
PLN has reported extensively on the prison telephone industry and its ruthless gouging of ...
Prison Legal News Interviews Musician Wayne Kramer
On October 13, 2014, PLN editor Paul Wright interviewed Wayne Kramer at his office in Los Angeles. Mr. Kramer is a musician, singer, songwriter and producer; he also served more than two years in federal prison in the 1970s. He has released a ...
From the Editor
by Paul Wright
It has been said that freedom of the press is neither free nor cheap. On January 5, 2015, a trial commenced in the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee, Florida. Prison Legal News is suing the Florida Department of Corrections ...
From the Editor
by Paul Wright
Welcome to the first issue of Prison Legal News for the New Year! By now you should have received our fundraiser packet with our last annual report. First, I would like to thank everyone who has donated to help support our work with the ...
From the Editor
by Paul Wright
Welcome to the last issue of Prison Legal News for 2014. By now, all PLN subscribers should have received our annual fundraiser letter, which includes our last annual report. If you have not yet made a donation, please do so. Unlike many other non-profit ...
From the Editor
by Paul Wright
Over the past 24 years PLN has reported extensively on the structural dynamics of the American police state, which have resulted in the imprisonment of over 2.3 million people on any given day. Critical to mass incarceration is a quick assembly-line judicial process with ...
From the Editor
by Paul Wright
This month’s cover story about the Washington Department of Corrections killing prisoner Ricardo Mejia through medical neglect is in many ways an old one. Over the past 24 years, PLN has run hundreds of articles about prisons and jails murdering prisoners through medical and ...
