In April 1990, the month before PLN published its first issue, Washington state enacted the nation’s first civil commitment law targeting sex offenders for indefinite imprisonment once they had completed their criminal sentences. Our results-oriented judiciary has upheld civil commitment against assorted legal challenges, finding it is a civil matter ...
Tropical storm Irene caused serious damage in Vermont on August 27 and 28, including in Brattleboro where our offices are located. We received a lot of phone calls, e-mails and inquiries asking if we were okay, and the good news is that our office is safe and sound and none ...
By Paul Wright
There are two types of lawyers, those who love the media, promptly return calls, are proactive about publicizing their cases, causes and clients, and those who fear the media. Some lawyers see the media as an enemy, hostile to their clients and cause while others do not ...
The modern era of prison reform in the United States was ushered in 40 years ago this month in a hail of blood and gunfire at Attica State Prison in New York. Afterwards the refrain was that every prison was Attica and Attica was every prison. Today it is hard ...
By Paul Wright
“Americans on the frontlines - our first responders, military forces, sheriffs, policemen, firefighters, and civil defense volunteers - must have the very best equipment, training and support possible. Our safety and freedom are the envy of the world and John Kerry and John Edwards will ensure this ...
Danny Trejo is one of the best-known American actors living today. His scarred face is among the most recognized in action movies and he has appeared in over 200 films, including Heat, Machete, Predators, From Dusk Till Dawn and many others. Less well known is the fact that Danny spent ...
Over the years some readers have said they find Prison Legal News depressing because we don’t report any good news, or not much anyway. One reason for that, of course, is because there has been precious little “good news” emanating from the American criminal justice system over the past several ...
Over the past 20 years PLN has reported the various conditions class-action lawsuits in California concerning the lethal health care administered to prisoners. After decades of non-compliance with dozens of court orders the prison system’s health care was put into a federal receivership, yet that still did not resolve the ...
As this issue of PLN goes to press, the U.S. Supreme Court has just released its opinion in Brown v. Plata affirming the three-judge district court ruling ordering that the State of California must reduce its prison population in order to comply with a multitude of prior injunctions requiring the ...
Welcome to the 21st anniversary issue of Prison Legal News. Since we started publishing 21 years ago, one thing has remained constant: prison and jail officials really don’t like PLN and try their best to censor us. The first three issues of PLN were banned by the Washington DOC in ...
