The Prisoners’ Right-to-Read
Statement
An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights
When a society, living under the rule of law, decides to segregate certain of its
members in the interest of public safety, the intellectual freedom of the
segregated individuals remains. As Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
wrote in his opinion for Procunier v Martinez [416 US 428 (1974)]:
When the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose his human
quality; his mind does not become closed to ideas; his intellect does not
cease to feed on a free and open interchange of opinions; his yearning for
self-respect does not end; nor is his quest for self-realization concluded. If
anything, the needs for identity and self-respect are more compelling in
the dehumanizing prison environment.
We assert a compelling public interest in the preservation of prisoners’
intellectual freedom. Prison populations reflect free society. Prisoners and free
people share many of the same intellectual and emotional needs. It is flawed
behaviors, not flawed humanity, that warrant prisoners’ physical isolation.
Correcting flawed behaviors depends in part upon new knowledge and insights
which can only flourish in an environment that values intellectual freedom.
Correctional librarians have a responsibility to preserve the civil right of
intellectual freedom in an environment primarily devoted to the human right to
safety.
Restriction of information resources for prisoners must only occur to
preserve the immediate and compelling safety and security of prisoners and staff
and according to prohibitions required by law. Prohibiting prisoners’ access to
information resources for any other reason is censorship.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that only when material advocates or
promotes illegal behavior or activities should First Amendment rights be
limited.. Prisoners’ share in this right has been upheld in cases such as… While
security interests may appropriately restrict the range of material available to
prisoners, censorship can be avoided by strict adherence to collection
management guidelines based on principles of intellectual freedom.
We therefore affirm the following:
Collection management in correctional libraries shall be governed by written
policies mutually agreed upon by professional librarians and correctional agency
administrators.
Correctional librarians shall select materials that reflect the demographic
composition, information needs, and diverse cultural values of the confined
communities they serve.
Correctional libraries shall not be limited to purchasing from a list of approved
materials.
Correctional librarians shall be allowed to purchase books without prior
correctional agency review and be fully trained to determine whether materials
meet written selection criteria.
Correctional librarians shall be allowed to solicit materials from a wide range of
sources in order to ensure a broad and diverse collection.
Lists of prohibited materials shall reference specific passages of text or
disqualifying physical features of the material and each collection management
policy rule which these passages or features violate.
Redaction is a form of censorship and shall only be employed if required to allow
access to information to that would otherwise be justifiably restricted by written
collection management policies.
There shall be no ban on sexually explicit material unless the content is in
violation of applicable local, state and federal laws.
There shall be no prohibition on foreign language materials. The library should
make all reasonable efforts to provide sufficient materials to meet the
information and recreational needs of non-English fluent prisoners.
There shall be no prohibition on media or materials with untraditional bindings
outside written collection policies for content and compelling security interests of
the correctional facility.
In correctional facilities that do not permit prisoner Internet use, the correctional
library shall provide prisoners with information available online.
Correctional facility libraries shall have a written procedure for addressing
challenges to library materials.