"A book can offer a brief, irreplaceable moment of calm"
November 30, 2021 10:28 AM   Subscribe

 
Even in states with no outright ban on book donations, there are still “content-specific” bans on particular titles and subjects. These exist in virtually every American prison, and have become more pervasive with each passing year.

Like so many things in the carceral system, the pattern of restrictions is flagrantly racist. For instance, many prisons have blanket bans on “urban” novels, a genre revolving around crime and intrigue in African-American communities. These are treated as contraband, and can’t be obtained through approved sources. Meanwhile, equally violent novels about white criminals, such as The Godfather or the Hannibal Lecter series, are allowed with no restrictions.

[...] In Florida, the Department of Corrections bans "Police Brutality" by Elijah Muhammad, "Political Prisoners, Prisons, and Black Liberation" by Angela Davis, and many similar texts; it has no such bans for "Mein Kampf" or "The Turner Diaries".


Now I want to donate to every single prison library. Where it's still possible.

I remember watching a documentary about a Norwegian prison, where the prisoners had comfortable, dorm-like rooms, full access to a kitchen and were encouraged to spend time in the common areas with other prisoners and guards. The prison was in the middle of nowhere and did not have much security as there was really nowhere to run away to. But even so, it felt so... unlike a prison.

They had some correctional officers on a tour from another country (the US? I don't remember) and someone asked what was the point of prison if prison does not even feel like a punishment. The local guard said something like "They are deprived of personal liberty. That is their punishment, and it is a punishment - freedom in itself is valuable enough that its loss is acutely felt. We do not need to devise additional punishments on top of that. They do not want to be here but while they are here we try to help them become better people".
posted by M. at 11:05 AM on November 30, 2021 [57 favorites]


I sell used/vintage books online. I've had books returned (bought by friends or family for the prisoner, that I shipped to the prison) because they weren't from Amazon or some other "official" seller more times than I care to count. The one that broke my heart was a 1960s book about criminal justice reform. It's infuriating.
posted by Token Meme at 11:11 AM on November 30, 2021 [8 favorites]


In trying to send things to an incarcerated person, I am constantly infuriated by the petty, pathetic little rules. Not only do you have to use an approved vendor that sells about what you would find in a vending machine, marked up of course, they can only receive between one and three packages of any kind every six months, depending on ... I don't know fucking what. I get that they're trying to prevent tuna packet barons in the prison economy, but they're just dehumanizing everybody further.

Which is fine with them, of course -- more than fine, entirely baked into the enterprise. Whether they even ever thought about the fact they are promulgating reading rules that would prevent the emergence of another great intellectual, I don't know. I just don't see prison officials having that level of imagination. Certainly they don't want another Malcolm X there, because that would be trouble. It's like there's a binary perception: could this be trouble, y/n? If it could in any possible way be trouble, out it goes. That's why prisoners can't get cards their kids made with stickers on them.
posted by Countess Elena at 11:12 AM on November 30, 2021 [15 favorites]


Very worthy organization: Pittsburgh Prison Book Project
posted by librarianamy at 11:13 AM on November 30, 2021 [5 favorites]


And the very important point I forgot to make: the prison vendors grind every possible cent out of these people and their families when by and large they don't have any fucking money. If they did, they'd have had better lawyers or even just better life options and they wouldn't be in prison.
posted by Countess Elena at 11:15 AM on November 30, 2021 [23 favorites]


I've donated many times to Chicago Books to Women in Prison. I slacked off when they stopped having an Amazon wish list (that made it so easy!) This heartbreaking article is a good reminder that I need to start up again.

They do have a wishlist here. I always try to donate books I think other do-gooders might overlook, like books on wicca, astrology and whatnot, as well as things that seem really popular.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 11:17 AM on November 30, 2021 [9 favorites]


This is such horseshit. When do we burn this whole system down.
posted by nushustu at 11:26 AM on November 30, 2021 [14 favorites]


The situation in Iowa is actually even worse than the article describes. Incarcerated people have to put in the order themselves, and can only order from specific approved vendors.

So if you want to give a book to an incarcerated person - who doesn't have a lot of their own money - you have to add money to their account so that they can place the order themselves. And of course, that means you have to pay more money.
Ashley Castle, who has a loved one incarcerated at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility, estimates that a $10 book will now cost her $18, due to the added fees that prison contractors charge in order to transfer funds to an inmate’s account.
I definitely don't believe that smuggling contraband in books happens as often as the DoC implies, but even if it was a serious problem, why NOT let friends and family members and 3rd party organizations place orders through Amazon? What reason is there for a policy like this except a cash grab on the part of the prison contractors who charge you $8 to put $10 on your friend's account?
posted by Jeanne at 11:29 AM on November 30, 2021 [15 favorites]


Another very worthy organization: LGBT Books to Prisoners
posted by Jeanne at 11:29 AM on November 30, 2021 [6 favorites]


Even in states where you have to go through an approved vendor to send books--in Michigan, it was Barnes & Noble or Amazon--half the time the books don't get to the prisoners. Amazon switched to not always fulfilling orders themselves, so if they have another vendor fulfill the book, it would get tossed in the trash by the prison. And if there wasn't an invoice in the box, it would go in the trash, even if the packaging was clearly from Amazon. I think maybe half of the books I sent my incarcerated friend over 10 years actually got to him.
posted by goatdog at 11:33 AM on November 30, 2021 [10 favorites]


Another supporter of Chicago Books to Women in Prison here. I send them books whenever I can. They do important, necessary work.
posted by bookmammal at 12:45 PM on November 30, 2021 [2 favorites]


Reading Catch-22 while in a correctional facility gave me a few brief, irreplaceable moments of laughter. Of course, since I was allowed to work in the kitchen, I wasn't considered a suicide or self-harm risk.

Also, this was in Canada and every cell block (or at least the ones I was in) had a rack of books free for the taking, so I never felt any need to visit the library.

As for the gist of the article, like Cleaver said, there's a sick thing going on ...and it looks like it's getting sicker.
posted by house-goblin at 12:50 PM on November 30, 2021 [9 favorites]


As has been pointed out many times, in America, the cruelty is the point. We do not have correctional facilities. We have places of punishment. We have found a backdoor route to maintaining a slave class and I see nothing to indicate that this will change.

Who are those who walk away from Omelas, indeed. I wish I had enough to donate to every worthy cause. My tacit complicity in this system shames me.
posted by ananci at 12:51 PM on November 30, 2021 [5 favorites]


I spent 5 years in something like 8 different prisons and jails in 2 different states. Every facility had completely different rules regarding getting books. Some had libraries and participated in the states normal inter library loan system (as close to heaven as it gets), some had no libraries. Some would give me any book, as long as it came shipped from a vendor. Some would only give me books shipped DIRECT from Amazon. Some let me have as many books as I could fit in my locker, some limited me to some random number like 5. Some let me have hardcover books, others would only let soft covers in (even if there were hardcover books in the library) because a hardcover book could be used as a weapon. All of them had completely different and totally arbitrary ban lists (but they all skewed towards racism), many of which were enforced intermittently (like ALL rules in prison) depending on who was doing mail that day, and what kind of day they were having.

The next big move is for the the coercive private prison supply companies who already control almost all of the commissary (Keefe + JPay), phone systems and email (GTL), and music (JPay again) to muscle out actual, physical books which (they'll claim) are vectors for smuggling and hiding contraband, and weapons in the case of hardcovers and replace them with ereaders that they charge insane prices for. The rapaciousness of carceral capitalism is really unbelievable until you've experienced it, but that pretty much goes for literally every single other aspects of the carceral system so...
posted by youthenrage at 12:53 PM on November 30, 2021 [37 favorites]


I'm on the board of DC Books to Prisons, and we have a thick binder, updated regularly, to help us track the restrictions in various states (and in some cases in particular prisons).

Happily, though, we still ship out thousands of books on a huge variety of subjects to prisoners all over the country (we're on track to send over 7K by the end of this year, even w/our office closed due to COVID), and the majority are received by the person that requested them.

If you're in the DC area and have books to donate, MeMail me.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:49 PM on November 30, 2021 [23 favorites]


I've heard of prisons banning correspondence chess because, they said, the chess notation was a "code".
Seems like the main idea is to find small ways to torment the inmates and make their prison lives worse.
posted by thelonius at 2:21 PM on November 30, 2021 [3 favorites]


It never ceases to amaze me that in the eyes of most Americans, it’s not good enough that we incarcerate people, often for unconscionably long periods. No, we also have to torture them while they’re incarcerated, just to drive the point home, I guess.
posted by holborne at 3:03 PM on November 30, 2021 [5 favorites]


More than 20 years ago, I toured a prison with other members of my Quaker meeting. I have many observations from that time, but what really stood out to me was that the small television sets that were available for inmates to buy and use with ear phones, were black and white. They weren’t allowed to have color TVs. When manufacturers stopped making black-and-white televisions, the prison had to have them specially made to sell to inmates, and they did this, rather than allow the inmates to have color TV. It seemed amazingly petty.
posted by Orlop at 3:31 PM on November 30, 2021 [14 favorites]


If you're in a major city in the US or Canada there's probably a prison book project near you! Here's the most comprehensive list I'm currently aware of (I've volunteered with three of the organizations on there and have had a great experience with each; my next book-packing shift at my current one is tomorrow evening). Donations—of money for postage and other costs, of books from special-order wishlists, and (depending on your local org; check first for details) of specific types of good-quality used books are very welcome.

Moreover, if your local project is doing in-person volunteer shifts again (some are, some are not) and you're comfortable with their space and COVID-19 rules (mine requires vaccination and masking and keeps the numbers down and windows open for each session), consider signing up for a shift. Each project is a little different, but most of the time you'll be opening letters from people and looking for the books on the shelves that best match their requests/adhere to the arbitrary and bullshit restrictions of the institution in question, as outlined in the article here. I've been involved in a lot of different types of organizing and activism and mutual aid stuff over the years, but this is probably the work that matters most to me. It makes a real and concrete difference for individual people, and every time a state tries to impose one of these bullshit bans and we fight back and win, it helps chip away at the awful edifice of the carceral system. (Also, if you are an introvert who likes to recommend books to people—there seem to be a lot of those around here!—it's a great fit.)
posted by karayel at 5:20 PM on November 30, 2021 [9 favorites]


I just recently had to participate in a install for video "visitation" equipment at a county jail facility, which, through use of proprietary video chat apps, allows the family to video chat with the inmate from home, through the family member's smartphone. You know how much inmates and/or their families get charged for data? $300 per gigabtye.

Not a typo.

$300 / GB.

That money goes directly to the vendor of the visitation system, who then kicks back to the jail a negotiated percentage. The reason the jail I was at was replacing their system? The new vendor guaranteed the jail would make more money.

I didn't want to have anything to do with the project, but unfortunately my choices were do it or don't get paid, and of course I can't fucking afford that.
posted by glonous keming at 5:31 PM on November 30, 2021 [14 favorites]


No, we also have to torture them while they’re incarcerated, just to drive the point home, I guess.

This is completely consistent with a belief in Hell.

Hell serves no conceivable purpose whatsoever other than making people afraid of it. Eternal torment with no possibility of redemption is certainly far beyond what any sane person could possibly include in any concept of justice.

A belief in Hell, therefore, must rest on an assumption that people cannot be motivated to do the right thing except by fear of completely disproportionate punishment for not doing it. And in order to hold such a belief about other people, one must necessarily hold it - perhaps unexamined - about oneself.

To my way of thinking, holding such a belief amounts to failure to mature into adulthood. So it's no surprise to me to find widespread fire-and-brimstone religiosity, widespread fetishization of youthfulness, and inexcusably brutal carceral systems coexisting within the same cultures.
posted by flabdablet at 6:38 PM on November 30, 2021 [9 favorites]


This makes me sick.
posted by marxchivist at 9:42 PM on November 30, 2021 [4 favorites]


This. Fucking. Country.

I just threw some bucks to DC Books to Prisons, and recommend if you can, you do the same.
posted by lalochezia at 3:18 PM on December 1, 2021 [2 favorites]


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