From Book Riot:
The Washington State Department of Corrections quietly rolled out a new policy via a memo on their website last month which disallows books to be donated to prisons via nonprofit organizations. So quietly, in fact, that one of the largest nonprofits that works to get donated materials to prisoners was taken by surprise to discover the change. They weren’t informed before it was implemented.
“We’re ready to fight it,” said Books to Prisoners, located in Seattle, in a tweet.
. . . .
The new policy limits books to those accepted by the Washington State Library for incarcerated individuals which had already been approved by the Prisons Division, used books from the Monroe City Library directed specifically to the Monroe County Correctional facilities, and to those used books purchased by prisoners enrolled in pre-approved correspondence educational courses from the bookstore linked to the educational facility in which they’re enrolled. Individuals have never been allowed to make donations to prisons; those have always had to go through either nonprofits or bookstores.
As Books to Prisoners pointed out, this severely limits access to literature for incarcerated individuals, and especially impacts those in facilities outside Monroe County.
One of the reasons noted for this sudden policy change is the lack of staff in mail rooms to determine whether or not materials sent are appropriate or whether they’re hiding contraband.
Link to the rest at Book Riot
Not too long ago, Ilona Andrews, a popular UF author, posted on her blog that the prison authorities in Arizona had determined her novel One Fell Sweep to be “inappropriate” for the reason it would “promote acts of violence.”
http://www.ilona-andrews.com/on-inciting-violence-peculiar-methods-of/
Here is the first part of the book blurb from Goodreads, so that you can get a feel for the type of book it is:
“Dina DeMille may run the nicest Bed and Breakfast in Red Deer, Texas, but she caters to a very particular kind of guest… the kind that no one on Earth is supposed to know about. Guests like a former intergalactic tyrant with an impressive bounty on her head, the Lord Marshal of a powerful vampire clan, and a displaced-and-superhot werewolf; so don’t stand too close, or you may be collateral damage.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28756485-one-fell-sweep
I recommend both the series and the author and am happy to report that prolonged exposure to her writing has yet to spur me to commit any violent acts.
Not too long ago, Ilona Andrews, a popular UF author, posted on her blog that the prison authorities had determined her novel One Fell Sweep to be “inappropriate” for the reason it would “promote acts of violence.
http://www.ilona-andrews.com/on-inciting-violence-peculiar-methods-of/
Here is the first part of the book blurb from Goodreads, so that you can get a feel for the type of book it is:
“Dina DeMille may run the nicest Bed and Breakfast in Red Deer, Texas, but she caters to a very particular kind of guest… the kind that no one on Earth is supposed to know about. Guests like a former intergalactic tyrant with an impressive bounty on her head, the Lord Marshal of a powerful vampire clan, and a displaced-and-superhot werewolf; so don’t stand too close, or you may be collateral damage.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28756485-one-fell-sweep
I recommend both the series and the author as prolonged exposure to her writing has yet to spur me to any violent acts.
Aw man, this is terrible news. I was literally, no joke, just looking into sending a paperback of my novel to a guy I know who’s in a WA white-collar prison.
He said the rules are that as long as it comes directly from the publisher they can accept it. So I was trying to figure out if my indie-published novel would make it, given that I would be shipping it directly from Amazon POD to the prison (I have a publishing imprint but am technically still a sole proprietor).
Sounds like they’re getting a lot pickier now.
My husband co-directs a non-profit addiction ministry and one of the things they do is teach recovery classes in three different county jails every week. I am constantly ordering books for the guys in these classes. As long as the books are paperback and come straight from Amazon/B&N/etc., they’re acceptable. (They can be used copies.)
Sending books to a man in prison, in my experience, however, requires that the book be a brand-new paperback shipped from Amazon/B&N/etc.
The reason for books from only approved sources is simple on contraband: prisons regularly get sent books filled with contraband – or even printed on contraband, in the case of a run of bibles whose “leather” covers were actually pressed marijuana leaves, and books where the illustrations were doped with LSD. (See also: why “religious supply companies” must be individually vetted by the DOJ.)
In addition to the obvious drugs, book codes are a time-honoured way for information to be passed to prisoners and back outside, and allow them to direct gang hits, revenge killings, silencing of witnesses, extortion, and their usual mob/gang/cartel business from their cell.
While I’m sure Books For Prisoners is an organization full of people who were trying to do good without meaning any harm, exactly how hard was it for a gang or cartel to set up a nonprofit and “donate” books to prisoners of their choice? Or “volunteer” with an existing nonprofit and “help” them donate?
Because policies like this don’t come out of the blue, and it’d be right interesting to know who pulled what that got this shut down.
Appalling
“One of the reasons noted for this sudden policy change is the lack of staff in mail rooms to determine whether or not materials sent are appropriate or whether they’re hiding contraband.”
I can see the ‘contraband’ side, but what is ‘not’ appropriate for an adult to view/read? And who gets to decide?
Books with ceramic knives or scalpels secreted in the hard cover? Heroin soaked pages? LSD tabs between lines 18 and 24 on page 154?
Lots os content is inappropriate.
“Books with ceramic knives or scalpels secreted in the hard cover? Heroin soaked pages? LSD tabs between lines 18 and 24 on page 154?”
Sorry, but that all falls on the ‘contraband’ side – do you have any actual ‘inappropriate’ reading items you’d like to point out?
When I worked in the inter-library loan department for my college’s library, I did get a request from an Illinois prison. The book was all about turning everyday objects into weapons. Think filing down toothbrushes to stabby points. I hesitated to send it, until another girl pointed out that a warden was likely the end user. So I sent it.
Books on how to make explosives and other weapons, true crime books where the writer gives an in-depth look at how the crime was committed, etc. — especially if the police took decades to find the killer — all of that could end up on the “banned material” list for a person who has already demonstrated a habit of doing harm to others.