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?
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 ...
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 ...
Readers have recently asked if PLN still accepts subscription donations paid for with new, unused postage stamps. Yes, we do. Through an oversight that information wasn't included when we recently revamped our subscription flyer.
As the first PLN of 1998 we present our index for 1997. The index confirms what ...
By Paul Wright
The court of appeals for the eighth circuit held that a prisoner's demotion from administrative to punitive segregation did not implicate any federal due process liberty interest. We would not normally report this case because it involves no new or novel legal concepts, what makes this case ...
The past several months have seen a lot of changes at PLN. Our sample mailing campaign has been proceeding so that by the end of this year we will have mailed out more than 50,000 sample copies. It is still too early to tell what our total response will be. ...
By Paul Wright
If you are a jail or prison litigator have you ever wished for a digest of all the major and most of the minor cases dealing with the subject you're litigating? I know I have. Hours spent poring over the West's digests where prison cases reside in ...
Books dealing with criminal law and its practice are relatively common. Many such books are multi-volume sets totaling thousands of pages and costing hundreds of dollars. The result is they tend to be used more as references of last resort for those able to purchase them. Apparently tired of that ...
If a business near your home was dumping raw sewage into rivers and improperly storing toxic materials that contaminated your drinking water supply, would you want to know about it? Would you be grateful if an employee reported this to the proper authorities? How would you feel if the employee ...
The U.S. supreme court, in a five to four ruling, held that employees of privately owned and operated prisons are not entitled to qualified immunity from suit. In the January, 1997, issue of PLN we reported McKnight v. Rees, 88 F.3d 417 (6th Cir. 1996) where the court of appeals ...
