Prison Book Bans

 When in prison, I tried using the inter-library loan program to fill in the holes of my education. One staff person, we heard, sent all inter-library loan requests into his trash can. Another did outright ban one book, I requested. The book was Alasdair Gray's The End of Our Tethers. She found the cover offensive. When my sister sent me a copy, the Bureau of Prison's mailroom, just passed it through - even though both the education staff member and the mailroom were enforcing the same BOP regulation. You can see the cover by clicking on the link above.

So, please give attention to the Marshall Project's 5 Things We Learned About Prison Book Ban Policies. I sumamrize what should be read in depth:

1. Even when there is an appeal process, it can be long and burdensome.
2. At least 24 states restrict who can send books.
3. Some systems don’t track the books they ban.
4. Books with notes or alterations can be rejected.
5. In a Virginia prison diversion program, the facility has complete discretion over access to books.

The last point rather shocked me, and I will quote its explanation:

Virginia established Community Corrections Alternative Programs (CCAP) in 2019, with the goal of diverting some people from incarceration in prisons to probation in facilities that offer drug treatment and other reintegration programs.

But people who are diverted to those facilities are not allowed to possess books at all without the approval of the facility superintendent. The state's policy attributes this to “the short duration and intense nature” of the alternative programs.

The programs are operated by the state corrections department and typically last between 22 and 48 weeks. Participants must pay their own room and board (up to $84 per week). Those who are employed in the community must turn over their earnings to the facility, which are then used to pay restitution, court costs and fines, as well as the program costs. After leaving CCAP, income people earned while in the program that did not go toward fees is returned to them.

Possession of a contraband item, like a book, is considered a Category 2 infraction, which can result in expulsion from the program, garnished wages, and other penalties, like additional work or loss of phone or visiting privileges.

In response to questions about access to books for people in CCAP, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Corrections said that “there is no criteria” other than the discretion of the facility superintendent. However, “it’s likely the Superintendent would consider the criteria that are used by the [officials] in the prisons.”

So, you want to reintegrate people, but they cannot have books? Sounds to me like the interest in getting money out of the incarcerated than helping them reintegrate. Education requires books. Reintegration must include education for its success. Unless, reintegration is only concerned about finding employees for jobs. I saw this at the halfway house, see my posts under halfway house living.

As far as I knew and know, #2 can be applied to the federal system - only directly from publishers. What we heard was this would block importing of K2 from the prison, What I saw, the ones getting high on K2 were not getting books from the outside.

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