Ex-con fights for prisoner rights and battles censorship

Paul Wright has been fighting to get Prison Legal News into America’s prisons and jails for more than 25 years. Part journalist, part prisoner-rights advocate, part First Amendment crusader, Wright says his monthly publication doesn’t get a warm welcome from corrections officials whose institutions and practices are often criticized in its pages. The newsletter, Wright says, “is frequently censored by prison or jail officials around the country who are hostile to an independent media that foc

us on prison and jail issues.” Wright’s latest legal battle is in Florida, where the Department of Corrections has been impounding issues for more than a decade based on some of the newsletter’s advertisements, including those for three-way calling services and prison pen pals. Wright sued the department, arguing that the ban violated freedom of speech and the press as protected by the First and 14th amendments. A federal district court ruled in August 2015 that the Florida department’s rule and its application did not violate the First Amendment; however, the court found that there was a due-process problem with how officials confiscated the newsletter. Both sides have appealed to the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals at Atlanta. While the battle in Florida continues, Wright and his colleagues have been successful in many other legal battles to get PLN inside prison walls. His organization has even attracted the services of a former US solicitor general.