Victory! Virginia Backtracks on Books Behind Bars

by Matt Kelley · 2009-09-16 17:51:00 UTC
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You spoke, they listened. Books Behind Bars is back in business in Virginia.

The Virginia Department of Corrections announced Tuesday that it has reversed its decision to stop a nonprofit group from sending books directly to prisoners. On Monday, change.org members started sending personal letters to Department of Corrections Director Gene Johnson, urging him to reconsider this mistaken policy. On Tuesday, the very next day, Johnson wrote to Books Behind Bars Director Kay Allison announcing that he had reversed his decision. Many thanks to all of you who spoke up for the rights of Virginia’s prisoners to pursue an education. Your voices made a difference.

A Department of Corrections official told me on Monday that the state had removed Books Behind Bars -- a program of the Charlottesville nonprofit Quest Institute -- from its list of approved senders because of a contraband issue. Johnson wrote to Allison that the prisons will improve improve procedures for reviewing books and asked for her cooperation in searching books more thoroughly.

Allison said the community had spoken loud and clear on behalf of her program, which has sent a million books to Virginia prisoners. It’s clear that the raised voices of the community brought about this change.

“I’m ecstatic,” she said. “This in a victory for inmates.”

The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties group, also intervened on Monday and sent a letter to Johnson.

Here's more from the Washington Post.

Photo above by juhansonin.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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