Books Behind Bars beneficial

Too many books, too little time,” goes the saying. Well, Virginia inmates may have plenty of time — but now they have too few books.

A Charlottesville-based program that sent free dictionaries and other books to inmates by request has been canceled due in part to concerns about contraband.

The ax fell apparently because of two recent slip-ups in the 20-year history of the Books Behind Bars program.

In one instance, a paper clip was found inside a book sent to an inmate. Inside another book was a CD.

We don’t know whether the CD was inserted and was inappropriate for an inmate to possess, or whether it simply was part of the book itself. (Some books contain related CDs.)

But the inclusion of paper clips was certainly serious. Paper clips can be used or modified as all sorts of subversive little tools.

“It should not have happened and we were called on the carpet for that and went down to meet with the warden,” Kay Allison of the Quest Bookshop, sponsor of the volunteer program, told The Daily Progress. “About two months later, the program director I’d been working with for years e-mailed me and said we could no longer send books to individual inmates.”

Corrections officials also point out that the books program had been given privileges that even family members were not allowed. Because of the risk of inserted contraband, individuals are not allowed to supply books. Prison officials seemed to think it was unfair to grant a loophole to Books Behind Bars.

Officials also said the books program allowed prisoners to have “too many” books in their cells, compared to prison library check-outs, which can be regulated.

We understand the concern about contraband. Items slipped through the bars could be physically dangerous as well as detrimental to discipline.

And we understand the difficulty of a policy that, in effect, leaves a volunteer organization to enforce the prison rule on contraband.

Too many books? Heavy books can be a weapon. Books can be a fuel source for a fire. But how many books are too many?

We are left with this bottom line: Prisoners have been denied ready access to books. Books that could educate them. Books that could rehabilitate them. Books that could inspire them. Books that could cheer them. Books that could give them hope. Books that could give them perspective. Books that could give them a chance at a better life. Books that could fill their minds and occupy their time with worthwhile pursuits, as opposed to active troublemaking.

Corrections officials have suggested that volunteers simply donate books to prison libraries that can be checked out under existing rules. That’s a possible compromise.

But it’s not as meaningful as being able to ask directly for a book, to know that you will receive it and to know that it’s yours.

We hope corrections officials will revisit their decision and find a way to make Books Behind Bars feasible again.