James Quigley
November 9, 1950-October 7, 2003
by Paul Wright
On October 7, 2003, long time Prison
Legal News contributing writer James Quigley was found hanging in his cell in the segregation unit of the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, Vermont. His death was apparently a suicide.
Jim ...
SouthLand Prison News was a bi-monthly magazine published by Virginia prisoner Joseph Houck. In August, 2003, they published their last issue after almost five years of publishing. I am saddened at their passing as it illustrates the ongoing problems of the prison press in the United States. PLN will be ...
Subscribers should soon receive PLN's fall fundraiser letter along with our reader survey. Periodically we send readers a survey asking readers what they think of PLN's coverage and content and what they would like to see in future issues. We welcome suggestions and comments so that we can better serve ...
When PLN first started publishing in 1990 there were several dozen prisoner rights publications being published around the country and in Canada. California alone had a half dozen. Today most of them have folded. Historically, the United States has had a penal press since the early 1800's. It is not ...
Washington DOC Ban on Bulk Mail and Catalogs Enjoined
in PLN Suit, Due Process Required
by Paul Wright
On June 17, 2003, Seattle federal district court judge Robert Lasnick issued a permanent injunction, effective August 16, 2003, enjoining the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) from censoring mail based on the ...
This month we continue our coverage of the hepatitis C (HCV) epidemic sweeping through American prisons with little or no treatment for the afflicted. The public health consequences of this and many other diseases that have historically festered in American prisons and jails before entering the community with both released ...
As PLN goes into its fourteenth publishing year, we have expanded our size to 40 pages to bring readers more information about prison and jail issues than ever before. Despite a prison and jail population at an all time high of more than two millions people imprisoned, the state of ...
The Eleventh Circuit US Court of Appeals rejected the attempt of a Georgia life prisoner to use the mechanism of joinder (Fed.RulesCiv.Proc. Rule 20(a)) to gain the benefit of another life prisoner's injunction providing for annual parole consideration hearings.
James Swan, a Georgia life prisoner who was not receiving parole ...
"The law in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread."
_ Anatole France
A central part of the mythology of the criminal justice system in the United States is that everyone is treated ...
Observant readers will have noticed that PLN's masthead has changed its message from "Working to Extend Democracy to All" to "Dedicated to Protecting Human Rights." As PLN enters its fourteenth year of publishing and advocacy on behalf of prisoners, we think this change more accurately reflects the actual work PLN ...
