MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Incarcerated Pennsylvanians now have to pay $150 to read.

pwalker8 · 11-12-2018, 05:33 AM

In general, advocacy pieces in newspapers tend to tell only the info that helps their side of the argument. Reading between the lines, it seems that there was a problem with people using books to smuggle in contraband such as drugs. Yes, it is a pity that some bad eggs ruined the program for everyone else.

It sounds like he prison system tried to come up with a way for prisoners to still read books sent to them specifically while avoiding the contraband issue, ebooks. Perhaps that solution isn't perfect, but I give them some credit for trying. Many prisons have some sort of library as well and this program seems to only applies to specific books sent to specific inmates rather than generally available books.

Here is a link to a story about the program.

https://slate.com/technology/2018/09...ns-ebooks.html

In this, they do reference that they are trying to improve the library provided to inmates by allowing groups to donate to the prison library rather than directly to specific inmates and that prisoners can buy additional ebooks if they wish.

11-12-2018, 05:33 AM	#19
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,196 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	In general, advocacy pieces in newspapers tend to tell only the info that helps their side of the argument. Reading between the lines, it seems that there was a problem with people using books to smuggle in contraband such as drugs. Yes, it is a pity that some bad eggs ruined the program for everyone else. It sounds like he prison system tried to come up with a way for prisoners to still read books sent to them specifically while avoiding the contraband issue, ebooks. Perhaps that solution isn't perfect, but I give them some credit for trying. Many prisons have some sort of library as well and this program seems to only applies to specific books sent to specific inmates rather than generally available books. Here is a link to a story about the program. https://slate.com/technology/2018/09...ns-ebooks.html In this, they do reference that they are trying to improve the library provided to inmates by allowing groups to donate to the prison library rather than directly to specific inmates and that prisoners can buy additional ebooks if they wish.