Thursday, November 4, 2010

Prison libraries and access to ideas

Libraries in Prisons: Should Certain Types of Reading Material Be Restricted? | The Broke and the Bookish:

Prison reading group, image via Penguin Books

Most prison libraries have no sort of restrictions on what types of books are in them. They have to have a variety of materials in them and have to record their inventory. They do have bans on what types of books can be sent IN to the library and they have restricted books for being sexually explicit, encouraging violence and those explaining how to construct weapons. There is no governing body that gives guidelines to prison libraries and each is different in what they allow.
It's an intriguing question: what should prisoners be allowed, and not allowed, to read? The Anarchist Cookbook? The Digging and Maintaining of Tunnels? (I made that one up.) True crime stories? Should there be libraries in prisons at all? (I absolutely think so, but does allowing prisoners to read coddle them and diminish the punitive nature of imprisonment?)
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