[4] Based on PLN's media pack, each subscriber's magazine is read by an average of almost 10 people, so monthly readership is around 90,000.
[4] The site receives over 150,000 visitors each month and also functions as a resource for media and community outreach as well as a platform for public education on criminal justice issues.
[7] PLN also distributes (free upon request) the Prisoner Diabetes Handbook, and is the exclusive distributor of Protecting Your Health & Safety: A Litigation Guide for Inmates, a book published by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The lawsuit was settled in 2000, with the state agreeing to change its censorship policies and pay the plaintiffs' attorney fees and costs.
PLN filed suit in 2003 and withdrew the lawsuit in 2005 after the ADX mooted the claim by changing its unconstitutional policy.
[13] That year, it also settled with Berkeley County, South Carolina, reaching the largest ever jail-related censorship settlement in the United States, totaling almost $600,000 in damages and attorney fees.
[15] In 2015, PLN settled a case with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after PLN filed a FOIA request for records related to telephone services and other documents concerning the ability of immigration prisoners to communicate with people outside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington; this is operated by the GEO Corporation, a private for-profit company.
[16] In addition to battling unconstitutional censorship through litigation (see the May 2010 issue of PLN for a full listing of cases),[17] Prison Legal News has also filed numerous lawsuits related to public records and Freedom of Information Act requests in order to pursue its investigative reporting on detention facility issues.
Founded as Prisoners Legal News, in 2009 PLN's parent organization was renamed as the Human Rights Defense Center.
The magazine features contributions from nationally recognized scholars and activists involved in criminal justice reform or advocacy efforts.