Prison legal News is a publication that has been serving the needs of inmates for as long as I can remember. The arrival of each new edition brings with it hope that “ just maybe this edition will contain a favorable decision with respect to my particular circumstances.” I recently renewed my faith in PLN by renewing my personal subscription. I implore all of our readers to do the same. It’s one of the few publications out there that’s all about the rights of inmates.
On the face of one of PLN’s recent advertising brochures was a quick paragraph attributed to Charles Dickens after he visited the old Eastern State Penitentary (open for business between 1829-1971) in Philadelphia.
“Charles Dickens visited Philadelphia’s Eastern States Penitentiary in 1842 and he later wrote: ” The system is rigid, strict and hopeless…I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body.” The prison remained open for 129 years after Dickens condemned it as barbaric, and forms of its inhumane practices continue to be routinely used in state and federal prisons nationwide.’
What a sad commentary on the state of corrections in this country at this enlightened stage in the growth of our nation.