Thanks to Evan for sending me this article by Tom Mooney in today's ProJo on the Department of Corrections’ latest flop: restricting inmates’ access to books and magazines.
He writes:
Until earlier this year, state prison inmates could receive paperback books, magazines and newspapers ordered and paid for by friends and relatives.
But corrections officials — saying they want to prevent inmates from extorting items from each other and reduce the time-consuming process of reviewing incoming mail — have changed that long-standing policy.
Now inmates can receive only those publications they order directly from a publisher and pay for in advance.
Forget about reports of newly-transferred 17-year-olds getting kicked around in the exercise yard… it’s time we focus on the real issues, like the tedious process of connecting inmates with reading material and the inevitable prisonyard fights that erupt in the mayhem of reading. I don’t know about you, but I feel just a little bit safer knowing that the criminals will remain as we’ve intended them to be… illiterate.
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