PLN Videos
Was former Tennessee fugitive trying to escape again?
Human Rights Defensive Center founder Paul Wright, who served 17 years in prison, joins "Banfield" to discuss serial rape suspect Sean Williams' attempted suicide.
Presented by Readers Beyond Bars. Co-sponsored by NYC Books Through Bars, the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, and Arko.
How Florida’s prison phone system stacks up against other states
Paul Wright on RT - Brittany Griner Jailed Despites American Diplomatic Efforts
Paul Wright on RT - Transgender Woman Claims Abuse After Removal from Female Prison
HRDC's 30th Anniversary Celebration
A Special Message From Civil Rights Attorney and HRDC Board Chairman, Howard Friedman
A Special Message From Internet Development Guru and HRDC Board Member, Ethan Zuckerman
Univision: Ex-convicts in Florida must pay their court fines in order to participate in the presidential election
Featuring Commentary by Paul Wright, Executive Director of the Human Rights Defense Center
Despite the fact that this order had been revoked in 2018 for non-violent inmates, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis restored it the following year, affecting almost 1,400 former inmates, mostly Hispanic and African-American, who are still dealing with this type of debt. Faced with this situation, personalities of the stature of Lebron James have initiated campaigns to collect money that serves to settle these sanctions and thus reestablish the right to vote for those directly affected.
Exconvictos en Florida deberán pagar sus multas judiciales para poder participar en las elecciones presidenciales
Pese a que esta orden había sido revocada en 2018 para reos no violentos, el gobernador republicano Ron DeSantis la restauró al año siguiente, afectando a casi 1,400 expresidiarios, en su mayoría hispanos y afroestadounidenses, que aún lidian con este tipo de deudas. Ante esta situación, personalidades de la talla de Lebron James han iniciado campañas de recolección de dinero que sirva para saldar dichas sanciones y así reestablecer el derecho al voto de los directamente afectados.
Univision Report On Police Tactics Used Against Protesters
Featuring Commentary by Paul Wright, Executive Director of the Human Rights Defense Center
Univision: Unmarked Vans Preying on Protesters in Portland Oregon
Featuring Commentary by Paul Wright, Executive Director of the Human Rights Defense Center
Investigan arresto de una manifestante por parte de agentes federales enmascarados en Portland
Paul Wright interviewed by Eddie Conway on the Real News Network show, "Rattling the Bar".
White Collar Criminals, Celebrities, Wealthy Use Privilege For Early Release Amidst Pandemic: Michael Cohen and Michael Avenatti were released, and some Los Angeles prisons offer pay-to-stay rooms for celebrities. But a huge number of people are still imprisoned and at risk of COVID-19 just because they can’t afford cash bail.
Paul Wright talks to RT International
Paul Wright discussing why CoronaVirus is especially dangerous in prison where social distancing is impossible.
A special message from Paul Wight, Executive Director of the Human Rights Defense Center regarding the work we are doing to keep you informed about the response of prisons and jails and the criminal justice system to COVID-19.
Paul Wright and Karyn Turk debate the Ban on Criminal Background checks for tenants in Oakland, CA
A debate over the new ordinance passed by the city council in Oakland, CA banning criminal background checks of potential tenants.
Video title: Prison Legal News free speech video
Video credit: PBS
Description: Freedom speaks video broadcast on PBS in the 1990s. Depicts Paul Wright, founder of Prison Legal News, while in prison and media expert Peter Sussman discussing free speech rights of prisoners.
Video title: Alex Friedmann - Global Business - CGNTV
Video credit: Stagepost Live Shot Guests
Description: Alex Friedmann discusses Prison Labor with CGTN.
Published on: June 18, 2019
Video title: Day 1 | Cash Register Justice
Video credit: John Jay College
Description: Day 1 of a conference on fines and fees where Paul Wright was a speaker.
Published on: March 7, 2019
Video title: Cimarron Riot
Video credit: The Frontier
Description: Deadly gang fight at private Cushing Prison (this video contains extremely graphic content some viewers might find disturbing)
Published on: October 6, 2017
Video title: Director ejecutivo del Centro de Defensa de DD. HH. se refirió a la entrega del Nobel de Paz 2017
Video credit: NTN24
Description: Paul Wright, director ejecutivo del Centro de Defensa de Derechos Humanos, se refirió en NTN24 a la entrega del Nobel de Paz a la Campaña Internacional para Abolir las Armas Nucleares y dijo que “puede ser que el Comité Nobel está tratando de hacer algo sobre las sanciones entre EE. UU. y Corea del Norte acerca del programa nuclear” de Pyongyang.
Published on: October 6, 2017
Video title: 4 guards outside cell as Georgia inmate hanged himself
Video credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Danny Robbins
Description: Read the full story on myajc.com: https://www.myajc.com/news/crime--law/videos-guards-outside-cell-georgia-inmate-hanged-himself/22tRwr7RUfeJIlUdHQkrhK/ (This video was reposted with permission from the author and publisher)
Published on: September 6, 2017
Video title: Paul Wright at Women's March - June 25, 2017 | West Palm Beach, Florida
Video credit: Human Rights Defense Center, Women's March Florida - West Palm Beach Chapter (Facebook group)
Description: HRDC Executive Director Paul Wright speaks to crowd about police shootings and the need for accountability. Original Facebook caption: "Thank you, Paul Wright, for your wise words and commitment to the cause."
Published on: June 26, 2017
Video title: 真人道还是假慈善？奔赴火场的加州囚犯 (True or false charity? California prisoners of the fire)
Video credit: Globus: The World
Description: HRDC Executive Director Paul Wright speaks about conditions for prisoner firefighters incarcerated through CDCR.
Published on: October 14, 2016
Video title: Facing Lethal Drugs shortage, Prison Officials Say 'Let's Kill Everyone Now' - Human Rights Advocate
Video credit: RT Question More
Description: Arkansas’ Governor Asa Hutchinson has ordered that eight executions be carried out before one of its lethal injection drugs expires at the end of April. A federal judge has granted a stay on the execution of only one of the condemned. Paul Wright, executive director at Human Rights Defense Center and editor at Prison Legal News joins RT America’s Anya Parampil to discuss the impending “mass execution” and the controversies surrounding capital punishment in the US.
Published on: April 11, 2017
Video title: We're Being Robbed But The People Doing It Will Never Go To Prison
Video credit: Brave New Foundation
Description: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is the country's biggest for-profit prison company and calls human beings in lock-up a "revenue stream." Don't let them profit off imprisoning even more. http://aclu.org/CCA#prisonprofiteers. This video is part of the Prison Profiteers series produced by Brave New Foundation's Beyond Bars campaign in partnership with the ACLU and The Nation. Narration by Henry Rollins. Research help provided by Prison Legal News.
Published on: November 5, 2013
Video title: Black Americans make up 47% of criminal exonerations
Video credit: RT America
Description: A new report on the wrongful convictions of innocent black Americans find that they are far more likely to serve time in prison for crimes they did not commit compared to their white counterparts. Researchers looked at the 1,900 exonerations reported in the National Registry of Exonerations between 1989 and October 20165. RT America's Manila Chan is joined by Editor of Prison Legal News Paul Wright to discuss further.
Published on: March 10, 2017
Video title: #Solutions2020 Policy Forum - Opening Remarks & First 3 Panels
Video credit: FCC
Description: This forum was the culmination of FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's #ConnectingCommunities tour which has explored the opportunities and challenges of bringing affordable, diverse and competitive communications services to all Americans. #Solutions2020 focused on proposing answers to some of the toughest challenges facing the communications sector. Held on October 19, 2016 at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.
Published on: November 9, 2016
Video title: #Solutions2020 Policy Forum - Keynote & Last 2 Panels
Video credit: FCC
Description: This forum was the culmination of FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's #ConnectingCommunities tour which has explored the opportunities and challenges of bringing affordable, diverse and competitive communications services to all Americans. #Solutions2020 focused on proposing answers to some of the toughest challenges facing the communications sector. Held on October 19, 2016 at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.
Published on: November 9, 2016
Video title: Danger Inside Private Prison Systems
Video credit: HRDC
Description: WHDT News Interview with Alex Friedmann, Aug 2016
Published on: September 19, 2016
Video title: Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Human Rights Defense Center
Video credit: HRDC
Description: Keynote speaker John Kiriakou
Published on: December 16, 2015
Video title: Paul Wright, Executive Director and Founder Human Rights Defense Center
Video credit: HRDC
Description: Paul Wright speaks at the 25th Anniversary of Prison Legal News and The Human Rights Defense Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, December 1, 2015
Published on: December 11, 2015
Video title: PLN's 25th Anniversary celebration in Seattle, WA on Nov. 9, 2015
Video credit: HRDC
Description: Part 1
Published on: November 23, 2015
Video title: PLN's 25th Anniversary celebration in Seattle, WA on Nov. 9, 2015
Video credit: HRDC
Description: Part 2
Published on: November 24, 2015
Video title: A Perfect Storm : Investigating Tennessee's Prison System - WSMV Channel 4 I-Team Special
Video credit: WSMV Channel 4 I-Team
Description: A documentary by the Channel 4 I-Team covering two years of investigations into the Tennessee Department Of Corrections. Our investigations prompted five legislative hearings, an independent audit of the department, a criminal conviction, and calls for the commissioner of the department to resign.
Published on: December 29, 2015
Video title: Túnez demuestra que no se deja destruir pese a problemas políticos: Centro de Defensa DD.HH. (Tunisia shows that it will not be destroyed despite political problems: Human Rights Defense Center)
Video credit: NTN24
Description: Interview with Paul Wright of HRDC on Tunisian politics
Published on: October 9, 2015
Video title: Colorado prison labor camp raising tilapia sold at Whole Foods
Video credit: Feature Story News
Description: Features interview with Alex Friedmann, Managing Editor of PLN
Published on: September 3, 2015
Video title: Workshop on Further Reform of Inmate Calling Services - July 9, 2014
Video credit: FCC
Description: To analyze the impact of the reforms and gather information to inform additional reforms of inmate calling services (ICS), the Commission held a workshop on Wednesday, July 9, 2014. Topics for the workshop included state reforms of ICS, the cost characteristics of the provision of ICS in different correctional facilities, the regulation of ancillary charges, and non-traditional communications technologies used in correctional settings.
Published on: July 10, 2014
Video title: BrianLehrer.tv: The importance of libraries
Video credit: CUNY TV
Description: First, recent data says rape in prison is increasing. There is a law against it but seven governors won't implement it. To discuss, Cynthia Soohoo, director of the International Women's Human Rights Clinic, Chris Daley, executive director of Just Detention International and Alex Friedmann, managing editor of Prison Legal News.
Published on: June 11, 2014
Video title: "Están experimentando con drogas para matar a la gente": dir. de Centro de Defensa de DD.HH. ("They are experimenting with drugs to kill people": dir. of Human Rights Defense Center)
Video credit: NTN24
Description: En entrevista con El Informativo de NTN24, Paul Wright, director del Centro de Defensa de los DD.HH., habló sobre la polémica que se ha generado en EE.UU. tras la agonía que vivió un preso al aplicarle la inyección letal. (In an interview with NTN24, Paul Wright, director of the Center for Defense of Human Rights, spoke about the controversy that has been generated in the United States after the agony that a prisoner endured during a lethal injection.)
Published on: June 24, 2014
Video title: RT international report on Oklahoma death penalty case
Video credit: RT Question More
Description: Diann Rust-Tierney - National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Published on: May 6, 2014
Video title: Billions Behind Bars - Inside America's Prison Industry Part 1-3
Video credit: CNBC
Description: CNBC's Scott Cohn travels the country to go inside the big and controversial business of prisons. "Billions Behind Bars: Inside America's Prison Industry," a CNBC original documentary, goes behind the razor wires to investigate the profits and inner-workings of the multi-billion dollar corrections industry.
Published on: October 18, 2011
Video title: TAP Long Haul Awards - 2014
Video credit: Tennessee Forward
Description: TAP is a statewide organization with a mission to build a prosperous, sustainable economy that benefits all Tennesseans. TAP believes that we need to articulate a hopeful vision for the future based on our motto "We are all in this together." Award presented to Alex Friedmann, Managing Editor of Prison Legal News.
Published on: May 18, 2014
Video title: Profiting from U.S. Immigration Policies
Video credit: Hillhouse Video Works
Description: Rev. Janet Wolf and Alex Friedmann describe the current US immigration policies that create profit for private prison companies.
Published on: Unknown date, 2014
Video title: Interview - Paul Wright - Prison Profiteers
Video credit: Talking Stick TV
Description: Interview with Paul Wright, founder and editor of "Prison Legal News" and co-editor of the book "Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money From Mass Incarceration"
Published on: February 17, 2008
Video title: Editor Paul Wright speaks about Prison Legal News
Video credit: Mapsite
Description: Prison Legal News -- Human Rights Defense Center - www.prisonnews.org
Published on: November 10, 2010
Video title: "I've seen it from the outside and the inside and I know how private prisons operate..."
Video credit: Grassroots Leadership - PSJ Campaign
Description: Alex Friedmann of Prison Legal News spent six years incarcerated in a CCA-run facility. He believes CCA's 30th anniversary should be viewed as an opportunity to speak out against the private prison industry.
Private prison company Corrections Corporation of America is spending 2013 commemorating its 30th anniversary with celebrations around the country. However, the 30th Anniversary of CCA and the modern for-profit private prison industry is nothing to celebrate. Please join the Public Safety and Justice Campaign, civil rights leaders, people of faith, criminal justice reform groups, and immigrant rights organizations as we collectively say it's time to end, not celebrate, the for-profit private prison and immigrant detention system in the United States. We are encouraging organizational and denominational leaders and their members to make short videos on why it's time to end for-profit incarceration.
Published on: April 24, 2013
Video title: Unlocking Communities: Ending Mass Incarceration in America
Video credit: The Aspen Institute
Description: The Aspen Forum for Community Solutions, Center for Community Change, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, and the Vera Institute of Justice invite you to a leadership and conversation on the mass incarceration crisis.
We are at a pivotal moment. Supporters of mass incarceration have argued that locking people away is needed to fight crime, but the imprisonment rate has climbed regardless of fluctuations in crime rates, giving the United States the highest incarceration rates in the world. The current revolving door system has done little rehabilitate men and women; tearing families and leaving communities no safer.
This event will bring together policy, system and community leaders for a critical conversation on the history and impact of mass incarceration and the strategies to end it. Designed for an audience of legislative, policy and advocacy leaders, we expect the event to serve as a powerful catalyst to action on this urgent issue.
Panelists include:
Bill Keller, editor-in-chief, Marshall Project
Marc Levin, policy director, Right on Crime
Danielle Sered, director, Common Justice Program, Vera Institute for Justice
Nick Turner, president and director, Vera Institute for Justice
John Wetzel, secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
Published on: May 21, 2015
Video title: Paul Wright Interview: Democracy Now! May 10, 2004
Video credit: Democracy Now!
Description: Interview with Paul Wright begins at 48:15
Published on: May 10, 2004
Video title: The Tennessee Tribune Forum: Mass Incarceration In Tennessee
Video credit: The Tennessee Tribune
Description: Panel features Alex Friedmann, Managing Editor of PLN
Published on: November 20, 2015
Video title: Outcasts: Surviving the Culture of Rejection
Video credit: Hillhouse Video Works
Description: Feature-length film about incarceration and recidivism.
Published on: Unknown date, 2014
Video title: Censorship Litigation Update
Video credit: HRDC in-house
Description: Live Facebook video
Published on: May 23, 2018
Other Videos
"On July 8th 2019 Captain Gaas and his crew of thug officers beat down an inmate using excessive force [...] This man didnt receive any medical attention or anything."
The video above was received by the Human Rights Defense Center in December 2018 and posted with permission. We have agreed to keep the source's name and the location of this CoreCivic facility confidential for the source's protection.