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Articles by Paul Wright

Connecticut Prisoner Rights

Connecticut Prisoner Rights is a brand new 232 page book produced by the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union and the Jerome Frank Legal Services Organization of Yale Law School. A group effort by Peter Stern and numerous other law students and attorneys, the end result is a concise, well organized book ...

Cigarette Health Hazards

Cigarette Health Hazards: The January 14, 1998, Volume 279, No. 2, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) contains an article on the risks of cigarette smoke in increasing the risk of heart disease. Title "Cigarette Smoking and Progression of Athero Sclerosis," by eight doctors, the article ...

An End to Silence

An End to Silence: Women Prisoners' Handbook on Identifying and Addressing Sexual Misconduct is a 67 page booklet published by the National Women's Law Center. The booklet is designed for women prisoners, their advocates, prison officials and attorneys. It contains chapters on recognizing misconduct; the physical and emotional effects of ...

WA Prison Telemarketing Elicits Controversy - Again

In December 1997 and January 1998, statewide media attention spotlighted a "shocking" prison tele- marketing partnership between the Washington state Parks and Recreation Department and the Department of Corrections (DOC) Correctional Industries (CI). For two years prisoners at Clallam Bay Corrections Center (CBCC) manned the Parks Department's toll-free information hotline. ...

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Heightened Pleading Standards for Intent Based Claims

By Paul Wright

On May 4, 1998, the United States supreme court held that civil rights plaintiffs do not have to meet a heightened standard of pleading when filing suit against government officials. Lawsuits alleging an improper motive on the part of government defendants, i.e., retaliation claims, do not require ...

From the Editor

We would like to thank Youth Emergency Services in Texas for awarding PLN a $1,000 grant with which to do sample mailings. We would also like to thank an East coast prisoner, who prefers to stay anonymous, for his donation of $500 so we can run 28 page issues of ...

From the Editor

Welcome to the eighth anniversary issue of PLN . This issue marks eight continuous years of monthly publishing, and in August we'll publish our 100th issue. This is an enormous accomplishment when one considers that the bulk of prison and alternative publications measure their existence in single digits as far ...

From the Editor

Beginning the first of March, 1998, the PLN book The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry will be on sale in bookstores nationwide. To date the feedback we've received on the book has been very positive. If you've read the book please write and let ...

Where to Now For Prison Smoking?

Where To Now For Prison Smoking?

By Paul Wright

As noted in last month's article, "Smoking, Lies and Hypocrisy," notes, the tobacco settlement between the states and the tobacco industry will have no impact on prisoners, assuming it is actually implemented. When the supreme court decided Helling v. McKinney and ...

Smoking, Lies and Hypocrisy

By Paul Wright

The recent settlement proposal between the tobacco industry and the attorney general's of 41 states has been in the news a lot lately. I share a home with 158 other men, 90% of whom smoke. The walls literally weep nicotine. A woefully inadequate ventilation system blows the ...