Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
...At issue was books sent to individual prisoners which some prisoners used to smuggle in drugs.
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Yes I was well aware of that and it is a problem here and everywhere else too I would expect (and with other things too, so there are controls on toiletries, for example). I thought I gave clear first hand experience indicating (as a generality) my impression of the untrustworthiness of prisoners.
If you read the article it does come across as a beat-up by a non-profit "library" and claims prisoners are denied access, in Pennsylvania anyway, to anything other than a very limited number of titles from electronic books sellers (and so, one assumes, the complaining non-profit goes out of "business"). Being a beat-up it would seem sensible to question the veracity of their claim rather than just accept it at face value.
So, as I mentioned, does that mean that a prisoner who has demonstrated appropriate behavior and has a special need (such as reference material while studying for a university degree) is denied access to that material in non-electronic format?
As I pointed out here there is an inter-loan service between libraries and should a book required by an appropriate prisoner for reference while undertaking formal study not be available in the prison library then it would likely be made available from another. For the sake of clarity by library I mean a formal library such as a city, national, university, etc., not one provided by the likes of a non-profit organization. Is such or similar opportunity for appropriate prisoners with a genuine need for material not the case in the USA, including Pennsylvania?