FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

Thanks to JackL for sending this item about a inmate who took his rehabilitation into his own hands. It's a pretty amazing story.

Consider Paul Wright's life by the numbers: 38 years old; 17 years in prison for murder; 15 years (all while in prison) as editor of Prison Legal News -- currently the only nationally distributed prisoners' rights journal; co-author/editor of two books, The Celling of America and the award-winning Prison Nation; 14 court victories against prison systems around the country, all affirming the First Amendment rights of prisoners, plus so many injunctions and consent decrees that he can't recall them all; 11 years of marriage (all while in prison); two children (conceived during the state?s Department of Corrections family visit program); 43 days since he was released from the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe.

Wright is luckier than a lot of ex-convicts. He obviously has a good deal of inner resources and he has his work with the paper.

The paper started as 10 photocopied pages distributed by hand and has grown to a 40-page monthly with 3,600 subscribers throughout the U.S. and many other countries. Over the years, Prison Legal News has broken a variety of stories picked up by newspapers around the nation. Wright has also been an important tipster for reporters and editors, including me. He considers his biggest journalistic achievement to be jump-starting the policy debate over prison labor. He has exposed the use of prisoners by contractors for Microsoft, Starbucks, Boeing, and former U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf, among others.

Even for Wright the transition has not been easy, but he has a strong personal support system and will no doubt succeed in becoming a productive member of society. The revolving door of recidivism however, still turns on the many who come out unprepared after decades of strict regulations 'inside' to an explosion of choices to be made on the 'outside'.

Drug testing won't help those inmates succeed, but comprehensive life-skills training before they get out would.