Philadelphia Inquirer exposes Pennsylvania’s complicity in cutting off incarcerated people’s access to books
The Pennsylvania DOC introduces a telecom company to a large, captive market for e-books.
by Wanda Bertram, September 21, 2018
Pennsylvania prisons just ended book donations to incarcerated people, claiming they’ve found a new, better way to provide access to books. Their bright idea? Partnering with telecom giant GTL to sell e-books on tablet computers.
Prison tablets, as we’ve shown, deliver low-quality services at frequently exorbitant prices. Email on a prison tablet requires a paid “stamp.” If that’s an acceptable substitute for email, we wondered, what does GTL think passes for a library?
I intended to find out, but the Philadelphia Inquirer beat me to it, with an article this morning revealing just how insufficient GTL’s book list is. Many of the most popular books among incarcerated people – including dictionaries – are missing. Read the excellent full article here, or my summary on Twitter:
Thread: Pennsylvania prisons are cutting off book donations and replacing them with e-books on tablets. Journalist @samanthamelamed tracked down the list of books. It’s worse than you think. 1/5
— Prison Policy Init. (@PrisonPolicy) September 21, 2018
GTL, which sells the tablets and e-books, gets a lot of its content from Project Gutenberg for free. Then it re-sells the free books for up to $12. 2/5https://t.co/d3BMTNGLY4
— Prison Policy Init. (@PrisonPolicy) September 21, 2018
If that isn’t bad enough, GTL’s list excludes many of the books that incarcerated people request most often. Books that a donation program could supply. 3/5 pic.twitter.com/Hozi3v9f1h
— Prison Policy Init. (@PrisonPolicy) September 21, 2018
Remember this person, who wanted a dictionary? They won’t find one on GTL's e-book list. 4/5 pic.twitter.com/JFRvCGv8B1
— Prison Policy Init. (@PrisonPolicy) September 21, 2018
Pennsylvania DOC says this is no big deal, because there’s still the prison library. Incarcerated people take exception. 5/5 pic.twitter.com/dsaJ65LVJI
— Prison Policy Init. (@PrisonPolicy) September 21, 2018
The only question left by the @PhillyInquirer article is whether the DOC's decision was born of malice or negligence. Given the timing and GTL's history, both are possible explanations.
— Prison Policy Init. (@PrisonPolicy) September 21, 2018
Prison tablets are touted as bringing the outside world to incarcerated people, but all they seem to be doing is bringing a new, captive market to telecom giants. Pennsylvania should allow groups that donate books – groups that walk these companies’ talk – to keep doing their valuable work.
