[Fwd: Paul Wright, Editor of Prison Legal News Needs Help!]]

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

My apologies if this post has already been fwd to m-fem.
I have been reading Prison Legal News for seven years
and regard it as one of the most valuable publications
in the United States. If Paul Wright is transferred to
a more restricted prison and his freedom of communication
with the outside world compromised it will be a serious
defeat for the left in the United States.

I have called the numbers. You will get voice mail
responses with multiple-choices and after considerable
switching will have to leave a message at both numbers.
Though I sub to a number of left maillists, two of them
feminist lists, almost *all* the information I have
ever encountered about women in prison has been in
PLN.


Carrol


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Paul Wright, Editor of Prison Legal News Needs Help!
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 13:14:04 -0400
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>
Reply-To: lbo-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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