By Ed Mead

The other day a prisoner at a women's prison wrote and asked me how we, as revolutionaries, would handle crime problems differently than the existing government is now doing. The biggest difference would be both a social and an economic one, as the problem itself is both ...

By Ed Mead

Case Goes to Trial Over $12.40 Pair of Glasses

Aprisoner at the Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP), Dean Benter, filed a suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging he was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth amendment. Benter claimed his captors were deliberately ...

Editorial Comments

By Ed Mead

Well, at long last here I am writing my very first editorial from the streets! Regular PLN readers will remember that some month ago I initiated a campaign to get myself free. For reasons I still don't quite understand, I am finally out here in ...

If you are a woman and you break the law in Nebraska, and if you are required to serve a prison sentence, you will be sent to the Nebraska Center for Women (NCW). NCW is located in York, a small town located about 100 miles from Omaha. It's the state's ...

Editorial Comments

By Ed Mead

Welcome to another issue of Prison Legal News . This month I want to bring you up-to-date on how we have been doing with our efforts to increase our subscriber base and the number of paying readers. Since last May, every month we have been ...

By Ed Mead

Peoples' fear of being victimized by crime has steadily risen over the past couple of decades. This has been particularly true for women, the elderly, and minority communities.

While there has always been a substantial amount of crime in the U.S., its general level (rate of crime ...

By Ed Mead

Prisoners in various Minnesota correctional facilities filed a class action suit in an effort to secure minimum wages for the work they performed in the many prison industries. The industries in question produce items such as furniture, truck and auto body products, mattresses, textiles, and notebooks; they ...

By Ed Mead

 

Court Defines Applicability of Fair Labor Standards Act

Many years have passed since the era of liberal court rulings in the field of prisoners' rights. These ground-breaking decisions were handed down in the wake of a budding prisoners' movement, a movement led by the likes of George ...

By Ed Mead

The 1993 session of the Washington State Legislature has passed a new law that will dramatically increase the number of prisoners working in this state's institutional industries. Governor Lowry should have signed Senate Bill 5989 into law by the time you read this. In addition to increasing ...

RESIST GRANT: In my last editorial comments I waxed eloquent on the increased cost of our current publishing format and the need for us to obtain new readers in order to sustain the cost of these increased pages. More paying subscribers, I pointed out, would ensure that we were able ...