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On a freezing Monday night, a dozen New Yorkers gathered in the basement of a used bookstore.
Thick stacks of letters from prisoners all over the country were piled on a worn wooden table.
Its so uncontroversial, she continued.
Everyone supports education and reading books.
Who doesnt want that?
So why would you restrict access to this thing thats universally considered a positive?
Anything that can come in from a non-approved vendor obviously raises that risk.
Even the best-stocked prison library wont let inmates keep books indefinitely.
There are books I read again and again, poetry I zeroed in on.
I readInvictusfor the first time in prison.
Some people like to read Bibles or12-step books daily.
I was able to read from them daily because I was allowed to keep them in my cell.
The New Jim Crowis popular, as isThe Autobiography of Malcolm X.
People in prison make cents on the hour, she said.
How many barriers are there before it becomes not really access at all?
People have the right to read, she said.
(Most prisons place restrictions on the weight of packages coming in.)
I recently got in touch with someone from the New York Public Library, the inmate wrote.
The person told me to write to you.
Update: On Friday, Governor Cuomo directed the Department of Corrections to rescind the flawed program.
