These cases have given rise to historic judgments. including PLN v. Washington Department of Corrections, 115 P.3d 316 (Wash. 2005). At the time, it was the largest penalty and payment of attorneys` fees in a Washington State public record case in history, revealing serious wrongdoing among doctors at Washington Prison. PLN covers all aspects of the criminal justice system, including access to courts, conditions of detention, privatization, disciplinary hearings, excessive force, postal censorship, prisons, illegal convictions, criminal laboratories, visits, prison telephone services, immigration detention, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, prison rape, ill-treatment of female prisoners, reprisals, Criminal Disputes Reform Act (PLRA), medical treatment, HIV and hepatitis C, Forced labour in prisons, deprivation of rights, death penalty and supermax control units/facilities. However, the mainstay of PLN`s coverage from the beginning was the issue of detention conditions. [3] Prison Legal News, a project of the Human Rights Defense Center, is a 72-page independent monthly magazine that provides innovative reviews and analyses of prisoners` rights, court decisions, and news on criminal law issues. PLN focuses nationally (US) on federal and state prison issues, with some international coverage. PLN provides information that enables prisoners and other relevant individuals and organizations to better understand a wide range of criminal justice issues, including issues related to the protection and enforcement of prisoners` rights. Some of the areas we cover include prison work, private prison industry, medical and mental health care for prisoners, misconduct and abuse by prison staff, regulations and judgments in prison trials, juvenile justice, the death penalty, the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), prison censorship, HIV and hepatitis C, solitary confinement, and racial and socio-economic inequalities in our criminal justice system.
And much more! In addition to the monthly magazine and website, PLN has published three anthologies on mass incarceration: The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry (Common Courage Press, 1997); Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America`s Poor (Routledge) (2003); and Prison Profiteers: Who makes Money from Mass Imprisonment (2008). [1] Prisoners generally do not have access to the Internet, but they are the ones who need PLN content the most. We encourage the dissemination of PLN web content to inmates as long as it is provided free of charge to inmates. If you give your time to research a topic for someone in a prison, prison or other detention facility, you can print our articles and send them to them. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, donations to PLN or the Human Rights Center are tax deductible to the extent permitted by the IRS. Donations can be made by email or phone (see bottom of our contact page), or you can donate online via the «Donate» tab in the menu bar. In addition to accepting contributions, PLN organizes an annual fundraiser. Contributions will be used to fund HRDC`s special projects, including the Campaign for Prison Telephone Justice, Stop Prison Profiteering, the Prison Ecology Project and Private Prison News, and to ensure that inmates can continue to be offered low-cost subscriptions.
In 1997, PLN, represented by the ACLU of Washington, joined other imprisoned publishers and plaintiffs in a lawsuit that challenged, among other things, Washington`s DOC extensive censorship of incoming mail, publications, and mail classifications. The lawsuit was settled in 2000, with the state agreeing to change its censorship policy and pay plaintiffs` attorneys` fees and costs. [9] Prison Legal News also publishes and distributes legal reference and self-help manuals,[5] ranging from its own in-house published books The Habeas Citebook: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel by Brandon Sample and Christopher Zoukis` Prison Education Guide[6] to the Nolo Legal How-to series, the Prisoners` Self-Help Litigation Manual, and the Federal Prison Handbook. [7] PLN also distributes (free of charge upon request) the Prisoner Diabetes Handbook and is the exclusive distributor of Protecting Your Health & Safety: A Litigation Guide for Inmates, a book published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Prison Legal News is the oldest newspaper produced by and for current and former prisoners in U.S. history. [2] The U.S. Supreme Court has established a four-factor test for determining whether a prison order is reasonably related to legitimate criminal interests: (1) whether the regulation is rationally connected to a legitimate and neutral government objective, (2) whether there are other means for inmates to exercise that right, (3) the effects that the placement of the claimed right has on other guards, and inmates and the allocation of prison resources; and (4) whether the existence of simple and obvious alternatives suggests that the order is an overreaction of prison officials.
The first factor of these factors is a sine qua non. If a settlement is not rationally connected to a legitimate and neutral objective of the state, a court is not required to respect the other three factors. PLN is a project of the Human Rights Defense Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization funded primarily by subscription and advertising revenues, foundation grants, book sales, individual donations, and our litigation project. Subscription rates for inmates are maintained at a level almost subsidized by higher rates for non-inmates and advertising revenues, allowing PLN to cover its operating costs. PLN`s financial autonomy allows it to maintain complete editorial independence. PLN does not accept public funding. We gratefully accept donations and have received grants from several major foundations in the past. The Court held that the PLN District Court had correctly issued a summary judgment prohibiting mass mailings and catalogues without subscription, as the prohibition was not rationally connected to a legitimate criminal purpose.
The Court agreed that there is no rational connection between postal regulations and the criminal law objective of reducing the amount of mail that contraband can contain. Given the order limiting the amount of property prisoners were allowed to have in their cells, the theory that the postal order reduced the risk of fire or increased the effectiveness of cell searches was rejected. The court also found that the District Court had correctly rejected the prison officials` request for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity with respect to the plaintiffs` legal right to third-party funding, because it had rejected the plaintiffs` allegations that prison officials were applying the policy in a manner that discriminated against the PLN on the basis of content. legal documents (PLN suggested, that the real motive of prison officials was to delete documents, which embarrassed the DOC and educated inmates on how to file their claims). Prison Legal News` coverage includes access to courts, disciplinary hearings, conditions of detention, excessive force, postal censorship, conditions of detention trials, visits, telephone and telephone charges, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, rape and sexual abuse in prison, female prisoners, the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), medical and mental health treatment, HIV and hepatitis C, the death penalty, solitary confinement and control units, and more. Copies of the latest copies of PLN will be published on our homepage in PDF format. PLN`s website contains more than 18,000 press and law articles in its database. [4] The publications section contains more than 5,600 reports, audits and other documents on criminal justice issues, and the letter bank contains more than 7,500 different pleadings – including complaints, motions, appeals, judgments, judgments and settlements in prison cases. [4] The site receives over 150,000 visitors each month and also serves as a resource for media and community outreach, as well as a platform for public education on criminal justice issues. [4] A website subscription costs $149.95/year and offers full access to all PLN online content. Prison Legal News is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that publishes and distributes publications on legal issues of interest to inmates, such as prisoners` rights.
It publishes a monthly subscription magazine with 3,000 subscribers in the United States, 120 of whom are held in Washington State correctional facilities. Its editor, Paul Wright, is being held in a Washington state correctional facility. The Washington Department of Corrections («DOC») appealed summary judgment and a permanent injunction for Prison Legal News and Rollin A. Wrights (collectively, «PLN») asserted that the ban on inmates receiving bulk mail and catalogs without subscription violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The thirteen individual defendants («prison officers») appealed the rejection of their application for summary judgment based on their defence of immunity qualified as damages because they prevented the detainees from obtaining legal documents from third parties. PLN filed a cross-appeal against the order granting the thirteen persons summary sentences based on their defence of qualified immunity in relation to PLN`s allegation that prison officials violated its constitutional rights.