Tell Virginia to Stop Banning Legal Handbooks in Prison

What's so dangerous about allowing prisoners to read books?

Ask the Virginia Department of Corrections, which has decided that inmates who read a handbook on their Constitutional rights and legal ways to fight prison abuse pose a security risk to the institutions in which they're incarcerated.

The saga began when an inmate in the custody of the Virginia Department of Corrections ordered a copy of The Jailhouse Lawyer's Handbook. Though officials at Coffeewood Correctional Center approved the order, when the book arrived, they changed their tune. The Handbook was sent to the Publication Review Committee, which deemed the book a security risk.

Now, the Department is getting sued for depriving inmates of their due process rights — and with one look through the book, you can immediately see why.

This isn't a book about how to revolt when mistreated or how to buck the system. The Jailhouse Lawyer's Handbook is an instructional manual on how to legally handle mistreatment or potential Constitutional violations while incarcerated. As fellow Change.org writer Colin Asher points out, there's no mention of violence within the book — no instruction on bomb-building or shank-making. Instead, the book outlines the correct procedure for handling concerns about mistreatment in prison (Supreme Court citations and bureaucratic form numbers included).

Prisoners have a right to access to justice within prison. Denying them access to such justice is a surefire way for the Department of Corrections to shoot itself in the foot. If no peaceful route for resolution of conflict or concerns is available, how do you think prisoners will react? In fact, access to educational materials like the Handbook is crucial to maintaining order inside prisons.

Yes, it's important for prison officials to balancing prisoners' rights with safety concerns. But the notion that this book poses a security threat is a joke.

That's why the National Lawyers Guild and the Center for Constitutional Rights — which together published the book — are suing the Department to allow the book within the state's prisons. So far, the state has failed to fully explain why they've banned the book, and it's obvious why. If you read through the book, as I did, it's clear that the Handbook is a dry, purely informational publication, one that can actually help preserve order in prison, by giving prisoners legal, peaceful ways to air their concerns.

What book will Virginia try to ban next? Join us at Change.org in telling Virginia's prison officials to change their position, and allow prisoners access to information about their rights. Tell Virginia that banning a legal manual for prisoners is bad policy.

Photo Credit: limaoscarjuliet