Xoff's BlogCommentary on state politics by Bill Christofferson, who often uses Xofferson or Xoff to shorten his 14-letter last name.
Christofferson, a recovered journalist and ex-political reporter, has been a Democratic strategist and consultant for 20 years and is now retired. He lives in Milwaukee. |
blog advertising is good for you
The bureaucratic mind never ceases to amaze.
The Department of Corrections has decided it is just too risky to allow a non-profit, in-state group to send free books to inmates in Wisconsin prisons.
Citing security concerns that the books somehow might contain contraband, Corrections has informed Wisconsin Books to Prisoners that it will no longer allow the group to send books to prisoners.
The non-profit, all-volunteer group had been shipping its books through Rainbow Books, a Madison cooperative that has been in business for nearly 20 years.
Rainbow Books, DOC says, is not on its approved list of vendors, and DOC allows only new books to be sent from approved vendoers.
But the DOC administrative code does specify that books and publication must be new. The code says: “The department shall facilitate inmate reading of publications, including books, magazines, newspapers, and pamphlets.”
The policy also states that inmates may receive publications directly from commercial sources.
That, of course, takes money. If a prisoner has money, he/she is free to order from Amazon or bookstores and have books shipped directly.
That's not who this project is trying to help. It offers free books to indigent prisoners, who otherwise are limited to what they can get from a prison library -- which have tight restrictions on how many books a prisoner can borrow (like one), how often, and for how long.
DOC told the project it is welcome to donate the books to prison libraries instead of sending them directly to prisoners, but that doesn't solve the problem of too little access to resding materials.
John Peck, one of the project's organizers, told Wisconsin Public Radio that Books to Prisoners tried that earlier, but found after the books were donated that they didn't end up in the library system.
"We don't trust the library system to actually provide books to prisoners." he said.
Is there a need for the service? From the group's website:
Incarcerated individuals send us their requests for books directly. We provide what we can from our library of donated books. Since Jan. 2007 we've sent over 500 packages (containing 2 - 3 books) to 23 different prisons, centers, and jails in Wisconsin, as well as to prisoners in 13 other states. On average WBTP now receives between 20 – 30 book requests and thank you letters each week.
Many of WBTP volunteers are involved in other grassroots efforts to challenge the prison industrial complex such as doing educational programs within prisons, working with former inmates and affected families on policy changes, and informing the public about alternatives to incarceration.
Could that activism be part of the problem? That, coupled with its partnership with Rainbow Books, a progressive, lefty co-op operation, no doubt makes it suspect in the eyes of prison officials.
Poor Alec Loftus, the spokesman who got stuck defending this policy to WPR, said DOC is not confident proper security measures are in place at Rainbow to keep contraband out of the books.
Peck says the books are carefully screened for contraband. The website warns:
While some prisons accept hardcover and slightly used books, the best donations are new softcovers. Prisons will not accept books that contain any handwriting, margin notes, or highlighting.
What is DOC afraid of -- microdots of microfilm with secret instructions on how to dig a tunnel? Pages soaked in LSD?
Words are powerful. But they are not such a threat to the prison system that they should be banned.
When I first heard of this project last spring, I thought it was a stroke of genius, and contributed some slightly read books and some money for postage. I've been setting aside a stack for my next donation, which I'll make soon. I hope that, somehow, some of them end up in Wisconsin.
You can donate at one these locations:
Fair Ground Coffeehouse, 5901 W. Vliet St., Milwaukee; Lakeside Press, 1334 Williamson St.,Madison Infoshop, 1019 Williamson St., and the infamous Rainbow Bookstore, 426 W. Gilman, all in Madison; or help in some other way.
You might also want to let DOC Secretary Rick Raemisch know what you think of this foolishness: Phone:(608) 240-5055, FAX: (608) 240-3305 Rick [dot] Raemisch [at] Wisconsin [dot] gov
|
Follow Uppity Wisconsin Lifecasts on Zannel - Text cruiskeen to 58888 |
All content on this site © 2006-2008 by each individual author, All Rights Reserved. Designed, Hosted, and Published by Cruiskeen Consulting LLC
Rehabilitating prisoners? The very idea.
Is there any possibility that reading might have something to do with rehabilitation? And if so, is that why DOC is opposed to reading? A smart industry will not give up any customers.
wisconsin books to prisoners
Hi Bill,
I'm a member of WBTP collective and want to thank you for expressing your view of the current situation. (One dropped word: "The DOC administrative code does NOT specify that books and publications must be new.")
We're still waiting to hear the DOC's response about how Rainbow Books can become an "approved vendor," which incidentally is not (yet) a requirement as for publications (DOC Administrative Code 309.05), we're waiting for them to provide us a list of who the approved vendors are... Wal-Mart?
Unfortunately, the approved vendor requirement points to the increasing conclusion between the state and big corporations. Prisons are a promising growth industry (even when they are not privatized); there's big profits to be made incarcerating people. That isn't cynicism, but the sad reality in a country that incarcerates people at the highest rate in the world.
Essentially, this is about protecting the First Amendment rights of prisoners; freedom to speak includes the right to read (and not just tattered books by Louis L'Amour.)
...and thanks for trying to get people to act up!
Who is behind this new book scheme at DOT?
. In 2006, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) first provided the prisons with a list of nine publishers -- some Christian and others Muslim --who produced hate literature. They instructed the prisons to remove all materials by these publishers. There are 19 religions, which had books, in this list in 2006, when the ban went into effect.
From Catholic to Sikh.
The Oxford Dictionary of Saints was banned, but not one book from James Dobson or William Donahue, two of the most offensive abusers of Catholicism.
They even banned Billy Graham's books!
This Federal ban is now under review, by Republicans, who are finding it's hurting the re-election chances in 2008. While the ban is still in effect, it is being used by partisan state DOC officials, like Wisconsin, to promote a fear tactic and intolerance to what may be seen, as a 'preferred type of faith' acceptable to prison security.
"Amen' is certainly a gang code term, if not a terrorist call for hijacking airplanes.
The Wisc DOC claims the donated books are not going through proper prison channels....how the hell does anything get into a prison, other than through proper channels?
This looks like one high level DOC official, or a right wingnut, on a state oversight board, has decided to override the right to read...and instead of defending his DOC's screening procedures...is blaming an outside group for his own failure to function. Do they not want to screen the books for contraband?
Someone needs to sue the state's DOC officials, and weed out this crusader of content.
Or...just start tearing off the book covers and leave only the actual text pages of any book.
(Trumpet fanfare here) See no hiding places....just content.
Evil book covers are scary....at least to some.
Well you must understand,
Well you must understand, they're there to be punished, not to have any chance of improving their lifes. Sure some form of rehabilitation and improvement would make them less likely to re-offend, and more likely to become contributing members of society, but... why aren't they allowed books again?
Post new comment