By Kiera Riley | AZ Capitol Times
The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry owes $2.65 million in attorneys fees after settling a nearly nine-year federal civil rights lawsuit over censorship of a legal magazine sent to inmates.
Prison advocates found the victory to be vital given limited access to legal materials in state prisons and jails after the corrections department shuttered law libraries in 1997.
“Basically, our magazines are one of the few ways they can keep up with developments in the law,” Paul Wright, executive director of the plaintiffs, Prison Legal News and publisher Human Rights Defense Center.
