New York Prisons No Longer Allow Inmates to Receive Donated Books, They Must Buy Them

Three prisons in New York have passed regulations which states that prisoners are no longer allowed to obtain books through the mail from family members or community groups. They can now only purchase a selection of 77 books being sold by six state approved vendors. Activists have criticized the regulations for being too restrictive and expensive for the inmates.

As WNYC reports, one vendor sells books for $11.25 whilst another was selling a book about chess for $29.95. Of the 77 books available to purchase, 24 were colouring books. The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has stated that the directive is in place in order to try and restrict contraband from entering the prison “through a more controlled inmate package program.”

“It is possible that with feedback from incarcerated individuals and their families some adjustment in prices may occur,” a spokesman for the Department said.

The new directive stops almost all packages from any inmates family from entering the prison and food is also restricted. Like books, inmates must buy food from approved vendors.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office has pointed out that inmates still have access to prison libraries, but some believe this is not enough. “The problem with prison libraries is that [the prisons] control who has access to them,” said Amy Peterson with NYC Books Through Bars. “So people who are in solitary confinement don’t have access to prison libraries.”

The Books Through Bars initiative has been mailing books to prisoners across the US for almost twenty years. “We get letters from people saying they had to borrow a stamp in order to write to us. So if these people can’t even afford postage, we don’t know how they’re going to be able to afford buying books from a vendor,” said Peterson.

This restriction on books has been implemented in three New York prisons as part of a pilot program. “Informed by the results of the pilot program, DOCCS intends to fully implement the Secure Vendor Program at other correctional facilities by Fall 2018,” a spokesperson said.

James Tager, with the literary and human-rights organization Pen America, said he hopes to stop that from happening.

“We are trying to sound the alarm now, because even now as a pilot program affecting only 3 institutions, this is a dramatically over-broad restriction on the right to read,” Tager said.

Tager stated he appreciates that the state has a responsibility to keep prisons safe, but went on to state “this goes so beyond anything approaching a reasonable.”