Dec. 28, 2017

State Prison In Mississippi Bans Free Books

by Charles Douglas Owens, II (author's profile)

Transcription

State Prison in Mississippi Bans Free Books

The South Mississippi Correctional Institution (SMCI) has elected to undermine rehabilitation, education, the First Amendment, and equal protection by banning all books mailed to prisoners for free by "free book programs" or other distributors wiling to give prisoners literature at no charge.

Effective 2017, the SMCI began announcing on mail rejection notification forms that "free books are not allowed, books must be purchased."

Apparently only prisoners who can afford to buy books or who have families who are financially able to pay for books are entitled to enhance their rehabilitation and education by receiving and reading books. Those who are poor or whose families remain in poverty will be uninformed and uneducated because they will not be allowed to benefit from the multitude of free books to prisoner programs established throughout the nation to help those very inmates.

While banning or rejecting publications for no reason other than the publication being free most certainly does not pass muster in a constitutional sense, prison officials blatantly refuse to back down when confronted with legal reasons (and simple common sense reasons) why they should cease and desist this action.

This issue is on its way to a federal courtroom and updates will be provided as they occur.

Charles Owens
Leakesville, MS

-December 2017

Favorite

Replies Replies feed

We will print and mail your reply by . Guidelines

Other posts by this author

Subscribe

Get notifications when new letters or replies are posted!

Posts by Charles Douglas Owens, II: RSS email me
Comments on “State Prison In Mississippi Bans Free Books”: RSS email me
Featured posts: RSS email me
All Between the Bars posts: RSS