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Act Now to Protect Access to Books in Texas Prisons

  • 1 day ago
  • 4 min read

The following letter is written by several representatives from the national list including Books to Prisoners executive director Andy Chan, and posted per Andy’s request:

 

Dear friends and supporters,The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ has begun implementing a new batch of restrictions that will make it much more difficult for non-profit volunteer organizations to send books into Texas prisons. Do you have a few minutes to help?


The new policy would ban hardcover books, demand that all books be in "like new" condition, and require groups who send books to register every title sent to every prisoner in an online database.


What's wrong with this? Many important textbooks are only available in hardcover. New books are prohibitively expensive for grassroots community groups, and "like new" is a standard that can be arbitrarily enforced to censor content. Likewise, the online "portal" could easily be used as a tool for censorship and punishment, as well as creating a major new data-entry obstacle to the process of answering letters and mailing books. It's no exaggeration to say that these changes would make books inaccessible to a majority of inmates in one of the world’s largest prison systems.


Why are they doing this? The TDCJ claims to be alarmed at the number of drug overdose deaths that occur on their watch, and they have decided to blame books as the cause. While the Texas state legislature has accepted the findings of a study showing that most illicit narcotics are brought into prisons by corrections officers, the TDCJ is basing a publicrelations campaign around the specter of books with "pages soaked in drugs," refusing to provide any documentation of how often such a thing actually happens. Drug overdoses are a serious problem that requires a serious solution, which a book ban is not.


According to the Texas Justice Initiative, overdoses accounted for 2% of in-custody deaths over the past 20 years. At the same time, homicide and suicide accounted for 13% and 11%, respectively. Books are no substitute for genuine violence-prevention efforts or mental health care, but many people in prison say that reading has given them some respite from brutal conditions and kept them from falling into utter despair. That's why the TDCJ's false narrative and sweeping new restrictions are unacceptable.What to do? If the freedom to read is important to you, please make a phone call or two to ask the Texas Board of Criminal Justice to abandon this new policy.


Please take a moment, maybe on Friday, to call Eric Nichols, the chair of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice (TBCJ), a politically appointed nine-member body that has the power to create policy for the state’s entire Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ).


  • The general number for the board is (512) 475-3250. It goes directly to voicemail, so it may be a good idea to reach out to Mr. Nichols at his day job at the corporate law firm Butler Snow. His number there is (737) 802-1807, and the general Austin office number is (737) 802-1800.

  • If you cannot call, why not email: eric.nichols@butlersnow.com.


If you would prefer to remain anonymous and not receive any return calls, you can dial *67 before dialing the number you wish to call. This temporarily blocks the caller ID for the duration of that one call and needs to be repeated to achieve the same effect on subsequent calls.


Some recipients may block unknown callers, and phone companies can still trace the source of the call if they want to. It's not a permanent or foolproof form of anonymity, but does offer some level of privacy.


Remember that you do not have to answer any questions or engage in discussion. Please do not mention the names of any specific groups that send books to people in prison, as this could result in retaliatory action against such groups.As passionate and angry as we feel about this proposed policy, we encourage callers to remain calm and courteous. We want the people answering our calls to understand why we are calling, but we shouldn’t take it personally if they fail to come around to our point of view. If reason doesn't sway them, angry words won't either —- but the sheer number of calls may convince them that continuing with their plan is not worth the trouble.


The script below is a suggestion for what to say. You can read it directly if that feels most comfortable, or add your own thoughts if you feel inspired. Take a deep breath and take your time.

***"Hi, I'm calling because I believe it's extremely important that prisoners in Texas continue to be allowed to receive free secondhand books in the mail, without arbitrary restrictions on the condition of the books and without requiring senders to register the books through an online portal. The ability to read books is one of the few meaningful ways for someone to spend their time in prison. Many of them don't have anyone who can buy and mail them new books.

Organizations that send free books to incarcerated people simply can’t afford the cost to buy new books for every person imprisoned in Texas who wants one, or the time to register each book.

I believe it's a safety issue to keep someone locked in a cage with no mental stimulation or connection to the outside world, and the least we can do is continue the existing level of access to books, rather than restricting it. Books are not the source of the drug problems in Texas prisons. Please seek medically sound approaches to treating addictionand preventing overdoses, and cancel this plan that would deny thousandsof prisoners access to books."***


If you want to do more reading, here are some resources you might find useful.



 
 

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