Prison Legal News (PLN) is a monthly American magazine and online periodical published since May 1990. It primarily reports on criminal justice issues and prison and jail-related civil litigation, mainly in the United States. It is a project of the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Prison Legal News is the longest running newspaper produced by and for current and former prisoners in U.S. history.
PLN covers all aspects of the criminal justice system, including court access, prison conditions, privatization, disciplinary hearings, excessive force, mail censorship, jails, wrongful convictions, crime labs, visitation, prison phone services, immigration detention, religious freedom, free speech, prison rape, abuse of women prisoners, retaliation, the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), medical treatment, HIV and hepatitis C, prison slave labor, disenfranchisement, the death penalty and control units/supermax facilities. However, the mainstay of PLNs coverage from the beginning has been the issue of conditions of confinement.
Origins and function
Prison Legal News was inspired by the need for prisoners and their families to have a voice in criminal justice policy and to provide timely, accurate news about justice-related issues and progressive reform efforts. PLN has been admired and disliked for its strong advocacy of prisoner rights, including its extensive litigation involving jails and prison systems.
As of February 2017, PLN had an average circulation of over 9,000 hardcopy issues per month. The Human Rights Defense Center estimates that about 70% of PLN's subscribers are state and federal prisoners, and PLN has incarcerated subscribers in all fifty states. Based on PLNs media pack, each subscriber's magazine is read by an average of almost 10 people, so monthly readership is around 90,000. As of February 2017, subscriptions were $30/year for prisoners, $35/year for non-incarcerated individuals and $90/year for attorneys, government agencies and corporations.
The PLN website has over 18,000 news and law articles in its database. The publication section has more than 5,600 reports, audits and other documents related to criminal justice topics, and the brief bank contains over 7,500 assorted legal pleadings - including complaints, motions, appeal briefs, verdicts, judgments and settlements in prison and jail cases. The site receives over 150,000 visitors each month and also functions as a resource for media and community outreach as well as a platform for public education on criminal justice issues. A website subscription is $149.95/year and gives full access to all of PLNs online content.
Prison Legal News also publishes and distributes legal reference and self-help educational books, ranging from their own in-house-published The Habeas Citebook: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel by Brandon Sample and the Prison Education Guide by Christopher Zoukis, to the Nolo legal how-to series, the Prisoners' Self-Help Litigation Manual, and the Federal Prison Handbook. PLN also distributes (free 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.
In addition to the monthly magazine and website, PLN has published three anthologies related to 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).
Litigation
PLN has been involved in litigation concerning First Amendment and censorship issues in the prison and jail context since 1994. Co-editor Ed Mead was prevented from assisting in publishing Prison Legal News due to a condition of his parole prohibiting association with other felons – a policy specifically enacted to prevent him from further involvement with PLN.
In 1997, PLN, represented by the ACLU of Washington, joined with other publishers and prisoner plaintiffs in a suit challenging the state of Washington DOC's wide-ranging censorship of incoming mail, publications and mail classifications, among other issues. The lawsuit was settled in 2000, with the state agreeing to change its censorship policies and pay the plaintiffs' attorney fees and costs.
Prison Legal News obtained a preliminary injunction against the Nevada DOC's statewide ban on PLN, followed by a consent decree in which the DOC agreed to pay damages and change its policies concerning mail and publications. The matter was settled in September 2000.