Welcome to Prison Legal News!

Prison Legal News (PLN), a project of the non-profit Human Rights Defense Center, is a 72-page monthly magazine that reports on criminal justice issues and prison and jail-related civil litigation, with an emphasis on prisoners' rights. PLN has published continuously since 1990 and covers a wide range of topics that include prison labor, rape and sexual abuse, misconduct by prison and jail staff, prisoners' constitutional rights, racial and socioeconomic disparities in our criminal justice system, medical and mental health care for prisoners, disenfranchisement, rehabilitation and recidivism, prison privatization, prison and jail phone rates, women prisoners, the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), prison censorship, the death penalty, HIV and hep C, solitary confinement and control units, and much more.

In 2013, PLN received the First Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

This website includes all of PLN's articles published since 1990 plus thousands of other articles, case reports, publications and pleadings.

To search PLN's articles and other content, click "Search Content" on the top menu bar. For recent news articles that mention PLN and the Human Rights Defense Center or quote PLN staff, click "In the News" (which also includes our press releases). For our litigation project, which tracks our First Amendment lawsuits, public records cases and other legal actions, click "Litigation."

PLN's monthly magazine is a subscription publication. We have thousands of subscribers nationwide, and around 65-70% are incarcerated. We also offer website subscriptions that provide full access to all content on our website (most of our news content is free, but a subscription is required to access some of our legal content). For subscription options and fees, please click on "Subscribe" on the menu bar.

PLN also distributes a number of criminal justice, legal and self-help books through our Book Store. Plus we do much more -- for a better understanding of everything we do, please review our Annual Reports (also available under the "About" tab).

Sample PLN Issues

August, 2016 2016-8

July, 2016 2016-7

June, 2016 2016-6

May, 2016

April, 2016 2016-4

March, 2016 2016-3

Visit PLN's Book Store!

Recent PLN Articles

Not So Securus

Loaded on Aug. 2, 2016 published in Prison Legal News August, 2016, page 1

Filed under: Contractor Misconduct, Attorney Client, Attorney Calls, Telephone Monitoring. Location: United States of America.

by Jordan Smith and Micah Lee, The Intercept

An enormous cache of phone records obtained by The Intercept reveals a major breach of security at Securus Technologies, a leading provider of phone services inside the nation’s prisons and jails. The materials – leaked via SecureDrop by an anonymous hacker who ...

Securus Faces Lawsuit Over Recorded Attorney Calls

Loaded on Aug. 2, 2016 by Alex Friedmann published in Prison Legal News August, 2016, page 15

Filed under: Contractor Misconduct, Attorney Client, Telephones, Attorney Calls, Telephone Monitoring. Location: California.

On May 27, 2016, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Securus Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, accusing the company of recording privileged phone calls between prisoners and their attorneys as described in this issue’s cover story.

The suit was filed ...

United Kingdom: Queen Elizabeth Unveils Judicial and Prison Reform Shakeup

Loaded on Aug. 2, 2016 published in Prison Legal News August, 2016, page 15

Filed under: Work Release, Prison Reform, Electronic Monitoring, Rehabilitation/Recidivism, Release and Reentry, International, Prisoners-International, Family, Fathers in Prison, Mothers in Prison, Children of Prisoners. Location: United Kingdom.

On May 18, 2016, Queen Elizabeth announced a plan – touted as the “biggest shakeup” in criminal justice reform since Victorian times – that will provide more self-governance to UK prisons and allow prisoners greater access to technology. The Queen’s annual address also included a strategy for GPS monitoring of work ...

Popular New Snack Born Behind Bars

Loaded on Aug. 2, 2016 published in Prison Legal News August, 2016, page 17

Filed under: Prison Labor, Food, Rehabilitation/Recidivism, Release and Reentry. Location: California.

In 2009, Seth Sundberg was sentenced to five years for a fraudulent $5 million tax refund. The former pro basketball player had managed a California mortgage office and went from a comfortable living in the real estate industry to earning $5.25 a month in the prison kitchen. While working ...

HRDC Represents Former Illinois Prisoner in Wrongful Conviction Suit

Loaded on Aug. 2, 2016 by Derek Gilna published in Prison Legal News August, 2016, page 18

Filed under: Police Misconduct, Prosecutor/Attorney General Misconduct, Malicious Prosecution, Wrongful Conviction, Wrongful Imprisonment, PLN Litigation, False Arrest, PLN related. Location: Illinois.

Over the years, Prison Legal News and its parent non-profit organization, the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), have filed dozens of censorship lawsuits against state prison systems and county jails, as well as numerous public records suits. [See: PLN, May 2015, p.12]. More recently, HRDC has represented the families ...