AN uNfAIR ‘BOOKING’
Jail vendor blocks nearly all reading: charity
THE STATE PRISON system’s new vendor program that forces visitors to buy supplies from select online stores blocks a widely acclaimed charity from mailing books to those behind bars.
The state Corrections Department last month launched a pilot program that requires family and friends to purchase items for locked-up loved ones from five online vendors.
Over the past several days, inmate advocates pointed out that the vendors combined offered only five romance novels, 14 religious texts, 24 drawing or coloring books, 21 puzzle books, 11 how-to books, one dictionary and one thesaurus.
“No books that help people learn to overcome addictions or learn how to improve as parents. No Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, Maya Angelou or other literature that helps people connect with what it means to be human. No texts that help provide skills essential to finding and maintaining work after release from prison. No books about health, about history, about almost anything inside or outside the prison walls,” advocacy group Books Behind Bars complained in a letter to the governor.
Amid the outcry, prison officials Monday quietly announced the addition of a sixth vendor that offers a wider selection of books.
But inmate advocate are still strongly opposed to the vendor arrangement.
“A big issue we have with the vendor system is we send books for free to prisoners,” said Amy Peterson, a Books Through Bars member. “These people will no longer be able to get books from us, or any books, if they no longer have the funds to purchase them.”
The organization mails approximately 700 packages of books to prisoners throughout the country each month.
In New York, many of the state’s 54 prison facilities have libraries. But some are small, and prisoners in solitary are blocked from accessing them.
“They are alone from the rest of the prison population and they really need books,” Peterson said.
Popular requests include dictionaries, drawing tutorials, crochet guides and workout programs.
A prisoner wish list created by the organization also seeks historical books about Native Americans and slavery in America. One popular title is “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander, which has reportedly been banned in some New Jersey prisons.
New York State’s vendor program — first reported by the Daily News in March — has been harshly criticized by inmate supporters.
Prison officials say the new system — running in three facilities — will cut back on contraband.
They also point out that the secure vendor program is used by almost 30 jurisdictions in the U.S.
It is expected to be expanded systemwide in New York by this fall.
Prison officials for years have allowed family and friends to bring packages to their loved ones behind bars. They are also allowed to mail items to facilities.
Officers check those packages before handing them over to prisoners.
Now, friends and family members at the three selected facilities must use one of the online vendors.