Dangerous books

I’m reminded of that revealing vignette having read a small note in The Washington Post (9/17/09) — “Prison Officials Reverse Ban of Book Programs.” Apparently, the Virginia Department of Corrections had halted a volunteer private program, Books Behind Bars, that had provided 1 million books to prisoners in Virginia. Inmates were allowed three books a month. Most of them requested Bibles, dictionaries, self-help books, some novels. The program had been stopped because of “security risks,” and because it imposed “busy work” for corrections officials overseeing the process. Contraband had been found by a volunteer in one book, reportedly a paper clip and a CD. Close call! Good for Virginia citizens that was found! Volunteers promised to take extra care inspecting books in the future, and the ban was lifted.

Both incidents are classic examples of institutionalization. All institutions are run with a preference for the interests and needs of the administrators, more so than the users. Hospitals worry too much about the needs of their staffs, to the prejudice of the sick patients. They wake them up to take sleeping pills, and rush service so staff changes can take place. Schools start too soon, close too early, for reasons having less to do with education than administration. Churches worry about their rich sponsors more than their poor flock. The Catholic Church spent 50 years hiding the wrongdoing of predatory priests rather than caring about their young wards. It isn’t only prisons.

Of course, prisons must filter out contraband from ingenious inmates and their outside contacts. But books? Might inmates attack one another with heavy encyclopedias? Wouldn’t the minimal problem required to assure the security of the donated volumes be compensated for by the advantage of having prisoners reading more books?

There are countless examples of these kinds of institutional preferences that contribute to the problems of running prisons. The foreboding buildings themselves, expensive to build and maintain, inherently limit the activities inside. Schedules inside — for eating, exercise, recreation — are built around the hours preferred by guards. Some such considerations are necessary. Too many pervert the very purposes of these institutions. Prisons are needed to segregate some prisoners; but they also are supposed to rehabilitate them. Books might help.

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