UK Bans Sending Books To Prisoners 220
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: "Alan Travis and Mark Tran report in The Guardian that new rules introduced by the justice secretary in the UK ban anyone sending in books to prisoners It's part of a new earned-incentives and privileges scheme, which allows better-behaved prisoners to get better access to funds to buy their own books. But members of Britain's literary establishment have combined to condemn Justice Secretary Chris Grayling's ban on sending books to prisoners. 'While we understand that prisons must be able to apply incentives to reward good behavior by prisoners, we do not believe that education and reading should be part of that policy,' says a letter signed by more than 80 leading authors. 'Books represent a lifeline behind bars, a way of nourishing the mind and filling the many hours that prisoners spend locked in their cells. In an environment with no internet access and only limited library facilities, books become all the more important.' Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman says the prime minister backs the ban on receiving books and entirely supports Grayling, whose department imposed the ban to preserve a rigid system of rewards and punishments for prisoners and said there was no need for prisoners to be sent books as prisoners could borrow from prison libraries and keep some reading material in their cells. However a former prisoner told the Guardian that although libraries existed, access could be severely restricted, particularly in closed prisons. 'I've been in places where prisoners only get 20 minutes a week to visit the library and change books.'"
Re:Sounds reasonable, but look who's in prison (Score:4, Interesting)
Criminal sentences have 3 objectives. Rehabilitation, retribution and deterrence.
Both left and right agree on the importance of deterrence. But the right tend to believe that retribution is the second most important function. Whilst the left believe rehabilitation is.
Re:Sounds reasonable, but look who's in prison (Score:2, Interesting)
You forgot the main function, insulation, as in insulate society from criminals by keeping them apart.
I didn't forget anything. What you call "insulation" is called incapacitation in criminology, and is a part of deterrence.
Actually the two most important functions are insulation and deterrence. Both rehabilitation and retribution are irrelevant in comparison.
As I said, all agree on the importance of deterrence. The importance of the other two are more subjective.