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Articles by Paul Wright

The Citebook

Review by Paul Wright

The Citebook is a 275 page book written by Tony Darwin designed to help laypersons help themselves in researching their litigation. Now in its eleventh printing the book is organized by subject and gives a brief description of relevant cases. This book is in a category ...

New Prisoners' Self Help Litigation Manual

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. ...

How to Win Prison Disciplinary Hearings

Reviewed by Paul Wright

In the August, 1994, issue of PLN we reviewed the first edition of How to Win Prison Disciplinary Hearings by Allan Parmelee. Now we are excited to tell you about the completed State and Federal Edition. We gave the old HTW an excellent review and noted ...

Spitting by HIV+ Prisoner Results in Attempted Murder Conviction

By Paul Wright

Curtis Weeks, an HIV+ Texas prisoner, spit on a guard and was convicted of attempted murder. PLN rarely reports on criminal law cases and even more rarely do we do so under a by line. We report this case not for its legal value but its news ...

WA Passes Record Anti-Prisoner/Defendant Legislation

By Paul Wright

In the March, 1995, issue of PLN I gave a rundown on most of the anti-prisoner and defendant legislation then pending in the legislature. After we had gone to press for that issue Ida Ballasiotes, the rabid chair of the House Acorrections committee (See PLN, March, 1995,) ...

From The Editor

From the Editor

By Paul Wright

Welcome to another issue of PLN. Readers may recall that in the July, 1994, issue we ran an article concerning the suit filed by Ed Mead (PLN's former co-editor) and myself against the Washington state parole board. After being released from prison in 1993 ...

Grand Jury Slams FL Prison, Again

By Paul Wright

Glades Correctional Institute (GCI) is a medium security prison located near West Palm Beach in Florida GCI is no stranger to controversy. In PLN, Vol. 5, No. 9, we reported audits showing that GCI officials were paying $5.42 a tube for Pepsodent toothpaste for Muslim prisoners. The ...

From The Editor

From the Editor

by Paul Wright

Welcome to the 61st issue of PLN. As Dan said in last month's editorials we want to expand PLN to 24 monthly pages in order to deal with a backlog of material. We have expanded from 10 typed to 20 typeset pages without including ...

S&L Looters Do less Time than Petty Thieves

S&L Looters Do Less Time than Petty Thieves

by Paul Wright

Fraud in the Savings and Loan Industry: White Collar Crime and Government Response was written by University of California, Irvine, criminology professor Henry Pontell and associate professor Kitty Calavita. The three year study was commissioned by the Department of ...

WA Prisoners Help Elect Republican

By Paul Wright

From 1981 to 1993 Jack Metcalf held office in the Washington state Senate. In 1994 he was elected on the Republican ticket to represent Washingtons second congressional district. This is a story about prison slave labor, opportunism and hypocrisy by politicians and prisoners and media collusion. Metcalf ...