The gouging of prisoner’s families and friends by prison and jail officials and the telephone industry is a well-known phenomenon but also one that is fairly recent. Telephones were not introduced into prisons and jails until the 1970s (the state of Texas was the last to introduce phones to its ...
On an ongoing basis PLN conducts sample mailings to the mailing lists of other organizations and publications as part of our efforts to reach new potential subscribers who may not be aware of us and to encourage them to subscribe. Occasionally this causes some confusion when existing subscribers receive sample ...
Welcome to our first issue of 2011. As we noted in last month’s issue, our second book, The Habeas Citebook: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel, was printed and started shipping. We have already received a lot of very positive feedback from readers and reviewers alike. A lot of work and effort ...
Welcome to the last issue of Prison Legal News for 2010. By now subscribers should have received our annual fundraiser letter requesting donations. Unlike other non-profit organizations, we do not bombard our subscribers with dozens of beg letters a year; we only send out one. But when we send out ...
As we near the end of the year we are doing PLN’s annual fundraiser and this one is especially crucial because it is our 20th anniversary. Most publications never publish 10 issues, much less 240. Twenty years is a milestone for any organization and moreso for a publication like PLN ...
This month’s cover story looks at the ongoing scandal at the nation’s crime labs. The problem is so pervasive – PLN has reported on it extensively over the years – that several books could easily be written on the topic. Yet just as wrongful convictions tend to be the exclusive ...
Reviewed by Paul Wright
The Prisoners’ Self-Help Litigation Manual (PSHLM) by Dan Manville first appeared in 1983. It was designed to give prisoners an overview of the legal system, a basic overview of what their rights are and guidance on how to actually litigate a suit in federal court. The ...
After 20 years of publishing Prison Legal News I have been asked if it ever gets old or if I get tired of reporting the same news for decades. While there are common themes in prison and jail news over the years (medical neglect and guard brutality being the most ...
This month’s cover story on Plata v. Schwarzenegger is an ample illustration of the political failures that have led to the current state of the criminal justice system around the country. Namely the lack of political will to ensure public safety and to respect the human and civil rights of ...
The cover story of this month’s issue of Prison Legal News is no surprise to our readers. The pay-to-stay luxury jails in Southern California first came to my attention over a year ago when a reporter from the Los Angeles Times called to ask me for a comment on the ...
