30th Anniversary Issue! Prison Legal News PUBLISHED BY THE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE CENTER VOL. 31 No. 11 November 2020 ISSN 1075-7678 Dedicated to Protecting Human Rights Milestone: Thirty Years of Prison Legal News and the Human Rights Defense Center by Paul Wright riginally we were planning to 30th anniversary. Yale law professor and and mailed to 75 potential subscribers with Ocelebrate the 30th anniversary of Pris- author James Forman Jr. will be our keynote a budget of $50. The first three issues were on Legal News (PLN) in the May 2020 issue. speaker. Details on the event and how to banned in all Washington state prisons, However, with the COVID-19 pandemic attend virtually are inside this issue. the first 18 in all Texas prisons. Since then impacting prisoners and the criminal justice When I started PLN in 1990 I was 25 we have published 367 consecutive issues, system we decided to postpone it until later years old and three years into a life sentence. grown to 72 pages with offset printing and in the year given the urgency of reporting The United States had a million people now have approximately 9,000 subscribers on the pandemic. We also had planned to locked in cages. Today, I am 55 years old and in all 50 states. PLN long ago became the do events in Seattle and New York City to have been out of prison for 17 years, and the longest continuously published indepen- commemorate our 30th anniversary as we United States has around 2.5 million people dent prisoner rights publication in U.S. have in the past, but COVID has put a halt locked in cages. In addition to having a lot history. to in-person events. more prisoners, living conditions, by every Started in a Prison Cell Instead, we will do a national virtual possible measure with the possible excep- event on December 10 to mark both In- tion of disability rights, are far worse than In 1987, I entered the Washington ternational Human Rights Day and our they were 30 years ago. state prison system with a 304-month sen- Prison population growth has been fu- tence after being convicted of first-degree eled by the growth of the American police felony murder for shooting and killing a INSIDE state and increases in sentences.With 5% drug dealer in an armed robbery attempt. of the world’s population, the U.S. has 25% The following year I met Ed Mead, a politi- From the Editor 14 of the world’s prisoners. The USA is indeed cal prisoner and veteran prison activist, at Second Wave of COVID Infection 20 number one when it comes to caging people. the Washington State Reformatory (WSR) Millions more are on probation or parole in Monroe, Washington. Ed had been Judge: Prisoners Can Get Stimulus Checks 24 or other forms of state carceral supervision. incarcerated since 1976. During that time CA Guards Aid Attacks on Prisoners, Keep Jobs 26 Over its 30 years, HRDC has grown period, he had been involved in organizing from an all-volunteer organization in Se- and litigating around prison conditions and DOJ Report: Excessive Force Common in AL Prisons 30 attle that published a monthly newsletter issues. He also had started and published New Jersey Guard Acquitted of Sexual Assaults 34 into a professional organization with 15 several newsletters, including The Chill Fac- employees that publishes two monthly tor, The Red Dragon and The Abolitionist. By PA County Nets Rebate But No Cut to Jail Phone Costs 36 magazines, publishes and distributes late 1988, Ed and I were jointly involved in Private Prison Firms Pumped Campaign Cash to GOP 38 books, litigates cases around the country class action prison conditions litigation and and conducts national advocacy campaigns other political work. Rikers Island: Population Falls, Violence Up 42 nationally. Going into our 31st year, in the As the 1980s ended, it became apparent Private Prison Pepper Sprays Striking ICE Detainees 46 middle of a pandemic, here is a look back that collectively prisoners were in a downhill at how we got here. spiral – they were suffering serious setbacks Sixth Circuit Ok’s Ohio Prisoner’s Civil Rights Lawsuit 49 • • • on legislative, political, judicial and media HRDC Lawsuit Over CO Sheriff’s Censorship Policies 55 fronts. Prisoners and their families were the The first issue of PRISONERS’ LEGAL NEWS people most affected by criminal justice poli- News in Brief 62 (PLN) was published in May 1990. It was cies but also were the ones almost entirely hand-typed, photocopied, 10 pages long, absent from what passed as debate. There HRDC 2019 ANNUAL FUNDRAISER Please Help Support HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE CENTER HRDCthe 2020 Annual Dedicated to Protecting HumanHuman Rights Rights Defense Center! www.HumanRightsDefenseCenter.org Fundraiser The Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), which publishes Prison Legal News and Criminal Legal News, cannot fundPlease its operations help through support subscriptions the and Human book sales Rightsalone. We relyDefense on donations Center! from our supporters! HRDCThe Human conducts Rights only Defense one annual Center fundraiser; (HRDC), which we don’tpublishes bom Prisonbard ourLegal readers News and with Criminal donation Legal requests, News, cannot we only askfund that its if operationsyou are able through to contribute subscriptions something and book to our sales vital alone. work, We thenrely onplease donations do so. from Every supporters! dollar counts and is greatly appreciated and will be put to good use. No donation is too small (or too big)! HRDC conducts only one annual fundraiser; we don’t bombard our readers with donation requests, we only askWhere that if you does are yourable to donation contribute something go? Here’s to our some vital work,of what then pleasewe’ve do done so. Every in thedollar past counts year: and is greatly appreciated and will be put to good use. No donation is too small (or too big)! WhereWe does prevailed your indonation a lawsuit go? against Here’s the some Palm ofBeac whath County we’ve Sheriff’s done in Officethe past in Floridayear: for holding juvenile offenders in solitary confinement and denying them educational programs. The case settled • Wein won November censorship 2018, lawsuits and resultedagainst three in a numberjails in California of reforms and at jails the in jail. Virginia and North Carolina which now allow prisoners to receive books and magazines. • WeHRDC won public filed records First Amendment lawsuits against censorship the US Marshalls lawsuits Service,against ICE,the MichiganGeo Corporation DOC, andthe MarshallCorizon. County • As Jailpart inof Tennesseeour Prison Phone and the Justice Forrest Project County we continuedJail in Mississippi; to press the we Federal also settled Communications a censorship Commis case against- sionthe to Cook reduce County the cost Jail of prisonin Chicago, and jail and phone a federal calls to court no more ruled than in our $.05 favor per minute on liability and to in eliminate a suit against all ancillarythe Southwest fees. Virginia Regional Jail Authority in Virginia. • WeAs won part a resounding of the Campaign victory forin the Prison federal Phone Ninth Jus Circuittice, weCourt submitted of Appeals comments over the practiceto the FCC of taking opposing pris- a onersproposed money mergerand giving between them feetwo laden of the debit nation’s cards. largest prison telecoms, Securus and ICSolutions. The • WeFCC published then recommended The Habeas Citebook: denial Prosecutorial of the merger, Misconduct, and it was by withdrawnAlissa Hull and in April edited 2019. by Criminal Legal News Editor Richard Resch. With Withyour your help help we we can can do do somuch much mo more!re! PleasePlease send send your your donation donation to: to: HumanHuman Rights Rights Defense Defense Center, Center, P.O. PO BoxBox 1151, 1151, Lake Lake Worth Worth Beach, Beach, FL 33460 FL 33460 Or Orcall call HRDC’s HRDC’s office at at 561-360-2523 561-360-2523 andand use your credit credit card card to to donate. donate. Or visitOr visit our our websites websites at atprisonlegalnews.org prisonlegalnews.org or or criminallegalnews.org, criminallegalnews.org and and click click on on the the “Donate” “Donate” link. link. November 2020 2 Prison Legal News 30 Years of PLN (cont.) appeared in May 1990. Ed and I each typed Prison Legal News five pages of PLN in our respective cells. a publication of the Columns were carefully laid out with blue Human Rights Defense Center was a lack of political consciousness and pencils and graphics applied with a glue www.humanrightsdefensecenter.org awareness among prisoners, and widespread stick. We sent the proof copy to Richard ignorance about the realities of the prison Mote, a volunteer in Seattle, who copied EDITOR Paul Wright system among those not incarcerated. and mailed it. PLN’s start-up budget for Ed and I decided to republish The Red our first six issues was a whopping $300, or MANAGING EDITOR Ken Silverstein Dragon as a means of raising political con- $50 to print and mail each issue. We did not EDITORIAL ASSISTANT sciousness among prisoners in the U.S. We have the money to continue publishing after Betty Nelander planned to model the new publication on the the $300 ran out but vowed that as long COLUMNISTS old one: a 50- to 60-page Marxist quarterly as the money came in we would continue Michael Cohen, Mumia Abu-Jamal magazine that Ed had previously published. publishing. If it did not, it meant there was CONTRIBUTING WRITERS We eventually put together a draft copy, but a lack of interest and we would have to cease Anthony Accurso, Douglas Ankney, it was never printed for distribution.