Books Not Bans: Tennesee Book Policy a Mystery
I am lucky this far to have received my mail [including many newspapers, study packs and books from MIM Distributors], but the tablets are soon to arrive. As far as books go, I am unable to order any as there seems to be some type of mystery in that realm. No books until further notice, and nobody appears to be able to guide you in the proper direction.
Their goal seems to be to stop the flow of contraband into the prison. Yet, there seems to be more of it than food on your tray. People are falling out and sent right back to the place they came out of to be back in the same shape they left in: on drugs. They appear to do nothing about the problem. A person on drugs can walk right past an officer and he acts as if he doesn’t see him. The smell of something on fire stays in the air. You are forced to sleep in a room with unbearable smoke fumes in the air. All they want is for the alarm to not go off. Smoke bailing out of some buildings; isn’t that something?
Yes, we’re going to have to accept the tablets because they can solve the problem of unbearable conditions - or so they say!
MIM(Prisons) adds: Despite word from prisoners in Tennessee that there are new restrictions on books coming in, we have not been able to confirm the new rules. We have heard from other Books for Prisoners programs that they have stopped sending books to Tennessee. The Tennessee Department of Corrections’ website hosts the Inmate Mail policy dated 8 December 2023, which states:
“Printed materials may be received by inmates in an unlimited amount, provided they are mailed directly from the publisher(s) or recognized commercial distributor.”
Despite some censorship, and mail gone missing, MIM Distributors has been able to deliver books to TN prisoners prior to December 2023. And lately our biggest problem has been with Tennessee rejecting manila envelopes because they think they might harbor drugs!
As we’ve reported in Texas and elsewhere, drugs in prisons have risen to all-time highs, despite Covid-19 restrictions on visitations and new digital mail policies. And science has proven that drug addiction is a product of bad living conditions. So not only are prison staff bringing in drugs, they are driving prisoners to use them through their repressive and alienating conditions.
UPDATE 28 September from a TN prisoner: I’m currently being held at Morgan County Correctional Complex and I need your help/advice. Excluding religious books, I’m only allowed to receive 5 books, from only 3 vendors that prison officials have chosen! How can I further my education if I’m only allowed to receive 5 books? I’m working on my pending criminal and civil cases, and of course I’ll need more than 5 law books, but with this restriction, that’s not possible! This restriction is under the guidance of Warden Shawn Phillips who can be reached at (423) 346-1300.
The comrade included documentation showing the only approved vendors to be: Abebook.com [sic], bookshop.org and 21st century Christian bookstore. And apparently prisoners can give books to mailroom to be thrown away in order to receive additional books!
