Prison Library News: Two Stories of the Locked Up

Ah, prison.  The place to get away from it all, let your guards down, and take time to focus on your past mistakes without the rest of the world to distract you.  It is like a spa that you can not leave.  You know, except for all the violence and stuff.

Today we look at two stories, one heartwarming and one legal.  Let's get to it.

A program in the Dodge County Jail in Wisconsin allows inmates to record audio books for their children.  The program is meant to connect children with their incarcerated parents and has been a success.  Nothing says "Goodnight, Moon" like 3 to 5 for B&B.  ABCNews

An Alabama prison refused to allow an inmate to read a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the grounds that it was a security threat.  Mark Melvin, the inmate, has sued the prison to allow him to read Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon, citing censorship.  We can only assume that the inmate found nothing good on cable tv after Charlie Sheen was kicked off 2 1/2 Men this summer.  PCMag

Banned Books Returned to Missouri Library. Sorta.

A little more than two months ago, a Missouri school board voted to remove Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler from the school library and curriculum after one man voiced a complaint.  After a public outcry of censorship, the board has recently voted to allow the books to return to the library, only in a secure fashion to be checked out by parents for independent student reading.  Some, including students, wonder if this is the right choice.

"Jaymes Haney, 17, said he didn't understand why the board acted on a complaint filed by a man who has no children in the district.
"One religious man's complaint and opinion has caused a review and affected 1,500 people," he said of the high school students. "Now they're putting it in the library and putting it in a secure location? Only parents can come in and check it out; it's not accessible."" Houston Chronicle

I am all for this mode of action.  "Wha?!" you say, "the books are there but harder to get to."  Yeah, I know.  They are also placed in a mysterious prison in a library filled with students.  That makes them special.  I read Harry Potter, I know kids will break all the rules to get at something they seem as 'forbidden'.  Plus, if the parents have to give permission to check out books, they know what the kid is reading.  I say the librarian go nuts and put the whole damn library in that section.  Who knows what dangerous ideas can be found in Junie B. Jones? And we all know Green Eggs and Ham is just capitalist propaganda.  Protect the children!

Let's take the words of John Ciardi and make them real again: "The [public] library is the most dangerous place in town."

Ghandi Book Banned in India

Great Soul, the new book about Mahatma Ghandi, has been banned in his home country of India due to insinuations that Ghandi was homosexual or at least bisexual, reports the Sikh Times.  Ghandi's own decendents have decried the ban, claiming that the great leader would not wish for censorship in his country, saying, 

"How does it matter if the Mahatma was straight, gay or bisexual? Every time he would still be the man who led India to freedom."

 Well said.  I mean, think about it.  If a George Washington book came out saying he was gay, and Ted Washington stood up and went, "I could give less of a crap what side of the fence grandpappy was on, he still kicked some British keister."  And isn't that what is important here?  That these great men got the British to leave their people alone?  Now if we can only find someone brave enough to go against Simon Cowell, Hollywood would be safe.