I know people personally who did time. Do not for one second let them convince you that they don’t CHECK EVERY BOOK THAT COMES IN. They know damn well if a book is being used to smuggle drugs. They know if any mail has drugs.
You know what was one of the most popular books going around the prison was in 2007? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. You know what books are popular now? A Song of Ice and Fire. They just want to enjoy reading.
oh it’s all kinds of bullshit
my understanding of the situation right now is that books either have to be purchased brand new from the publisher and sent to the prison, or else have to go through one of the services like the individual in the letter mentioned. this means that if you want to buy a book for a loved one, you have to buy it brand new, which gets expensive. the number of books you can buy becomes extremely limited by how much you can afford–you can’t just buy a book for yourself to read and give it to someone in prison when you’re done with it.
thus the amazement this person expresses at receiving a used book, and realizing that there’s theoretically a way for their loved ones to send used books and smuggle them in with an order form, rather than having to buy new ones. the only way you can read that letter and think it’s about drug smuggling is if you assume that an incarcerated individual has no other use for affordable books.
and that shitty system is still better than only allowing people to read expensive ebooks they don’t actually own on impossible-to-repair, impossible-to-return devices that cost $150 and look/work like garbage
