Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2000 23:44:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: MichaelP <papadop@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: Paul Wright, Editor of PLN Needs Help!
Paul Wright, Editor of Prison Legal News Needs Help
Paul Wright, editor of Prison Legal News and Jailhouse Lawyer Vice
President of the National Lawyers Guild, is urgently asking for your help.
Paul, who is incarcerated in Washington state, has been placed in
segregation for the disciplinary infraction of having too many envelopes
in his cell. Prison officials are hoping to use this absurd rule
violation allegation to place Paul in the isolation unit for several
months and then transfer him to a higher-security facility (Paul is
currently in a minimum-security prison).
The situation is as follows: during a recent cell search, guards found 70
envelopes in Paul's two-person cell. Prisoners are allowed to possess 40
envelopes each. Paul was taken before the disciplinary court, where he
testified that 34 of the envelopes were his. His cellmate testified that
the remaining 36 belonged to him. Nevertheless, Paul was found guilty of
possessing too many envelopes and sentenced to 10 days' cell confinement.
Then, on Wednesday, Paul was transferred to segregation and informed that
he is facing new disciplinary charges for "lying" when he testified at the
hearing that he had fewer than 40 envelopes. If he is found guilty of
lying, he will no longer be eligible for minimum-security status. If that
happens, he expects to be held in an isolation cell for at least two
months before being transferred to a more restrictive prison.
Since Wednesday, Paul has been held mostly incommunicado. He was able to
make a couple of telephone calls on Friday, but he still has not been
allowed to contact his lawyer.
The current charges are the latest in a long series of measures the
Washington DOC has undertaken against Paul, all of which have been
directed towards making it more difficult for him to publish Prison Legal
News. PLN, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, has a long
history of exposing brutality, mismanagement and other crimes perpetrated
by DOC officials across the country.
Paul is asking all of us to make two phone calls to try to get him out of
this situation. This is the first time in many years that Paul has asked
for individual help for himself. He asks that people call Alice Payne,
the Superintendent of the McNeil Island Correctional Center, at
(253) 588-5281, and Joseph Lehman, Secretary of the Washington DOC, at
(360) 753-2500.
Tell them that you want them to 1) release Paul from segregation and drop
the charges against him; 2) stop punishing Paul for exercising his legal
rights (publishing PLN, filing lawsuits, and defending himself at a
disciplinary hearing); and 3) allow him to call his attorney.
For more information, contact Scott Fleming, National Lawyers Guild Prison
Law Project, at (510) 595-8264, scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx