Since PLN started in 1990 we have been censored in prisons and jails around the country. We have always attempted to resolve censorship issues administratively, but in cases where the goal was to keep PLN out of prison at any cost, that obviously wasn't possible. We have aggressively challenged censorship ...
This issue celebrates PLN's tenth anniversary. One thing about PLN is that we have pretty much muddled along and done the best we could. To this day, no one involved in PLN's daily operations has any professional experience in journalism or publishing. We're all self taught and learned as we ...
By now the observant reader will have noticed that this issue of Prison Legal News is 48 pages in length rather than 40. PLN recently switched printers which offered a variety of services, including higher quality newsprint and also allows us to expand in size, something our previous printer was ...
As this issue goes to press it is too early to have received any response on the matching grant campaign. Between May and January 2001, each issue of PLN will contain a bar graph showing how much has been donated to date and how much we need to raise to ...
By Paul Wright
In the February, 1999, issue of PLN we reported Mauro v. Arpaio, 147 F.3d 1137 (9th Cir. 1998) where a panel of the Ninth circuit appeals court held that a jail policy banning all sexually explicit material was unconstitutional. That ruling was vacated when the court decided ...
Thanks to the response our fundraiser has achieved, PLN was recently able to hire a second staff person, Linda, to help with our essential office tasks. Right now the main thing she has been doing is helping Fred, our office manager, get caught up on the many essential tasks that ...
The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, sitting en banc, held that a North Carolina prisoner had no liberty interest in remaining free when he was erroneously paroled, lived a law abiding life, and was then reimprisoned two years later when the mistake was discovered.
In the September, 1999, ...
PLN's fundraiser to pay for the second staff position has raised $5,645 as of January 10, 2000. We need to raise a total of $24,000 above and beyond what we normally bring in so we will be able to pay for a much needed second office person. If you haven't ...
by Jon Marc Taylor, Audenreed Press, 243 Pages
Reviewed by Paul Wright.
The steady demise of educational programs in prison means that prisoners seeking an education can no longer rely on prisoncrats to provide it. While there are books on the market discussing correspondence courses, they are all aimed at ...
by Douglas Hill, J.D., Kensington Publishers, 208 pages
Reviewed by Paul Wright.
A common refrain among jailhouse lawyers that have successfully learned how to navigate the legal system while imprisoned is "I wish I knew at the time of my arrest what I know now." Knowledge of how the criminal ...
