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What difference does it make what books are banned or not? It's not like any of 'em can read anyway.

Force, you are an ignorant person, #1 for your frat-boy type name, and #2 if you actually think that most people in prison cant read. Im sure alot of them are far more intelligent than you sir.

Amused finds it amusing that The SPook's name is The Spook.

like it is funny that the spook is defending the prisoners ability to read. meh.

Link found on www.anibigbrother.com

Banned Books at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice ~ Editor Note: We all know that in the Texas justice system ignorance and stupidity are rampant. This article will prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Stupid is as Stupid does.

Hey, did you just call that guy a Spook!?

The article only helps to highlight the ignorance of those responsible for rehabilitating Texas' criminal offenders - no big surprises there. The comments concerning the article however, shines a blinding light on the ignorance of the general public regarding our prison system.

Our state is quickly headed to becoming a police state, not only populated by poor minorities, but by suburbanites as well. We can thank our over-eager elected judiciary for that, as they try to secure their bench seat for yet another term.

Hey,it is Texas after all. The "authorities" are only on the free side of the bars temporarily. Then again considering how it is Texas; what difference does make.

Hah! I challenge anyone to show me literacy statistics in Texas prisons. McCocken was certainly painting with a broad brush...but was he really that far off base?

And I mean literate in ENGLISH, not Mexican(or ebonics)!

Now, now.

Let's be generous here. There are certainly persons in the Texas penal system who can read. I'm positive that the vast majority can read "The Cat In The Hat" if they put their minds to it. Why, I'll bet some of them can even read at a sixth grade level!

But this is churlish, and it might be hypocritical.

After all, most Americans (all but 9%) are graduates of government-run elementary, middle, and high schools. (That's as opposed to 16%-35% in countries like Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland...you know, the countries that regularly kick our assets in math, science, history, and literacy scores?)

Since most Americans are graduates of that government run monopoly -- and we all know what happens to quality when government runs a monopoly...remember the Soviet-made auto industry, anyone? -- it's hard to know whether most NON-prisoners in America can read above a sixth-grade level.

Want to help the literacy of those in prison? Start by emancipating those not yet in prison from their dysfunctional education monopoly.

Too much for you? Well, then I guess all we can do is "police" the in-prison reading materials. Replacing all the Playboys with Mortimer Adler would be a start.

Funny that the countries you list -- Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland -- are way more into government than the U.S.

Maybe if the funding wasn't always cut, the schools would be better.

Anonymous:

Well, you'd think that, wouldn't you? But the facts don't lie: The funding *isn't* "always cut" and, whether it is or isn't, never seems to make a difference. In fact, some of the most heavily-funded school systems in the U.S. produce the worst results.

I remember one year when Atlanta city schools cost somewhere in the realm of $18,000 per student per year, and the best private prep school in Atlanta cost roughly the same. Result: The city schools sent a small proportion of kids to college, where many were so desperately under-prepared that they flunked out. The private prep school, with a graduating senior class of 150-ish, sent 100% of its students to college including 15 or so who went to Harvard, Princeton, or Yale.

But, then, the private prep-school had spent decades honing its techniques to keep its customers from becoming unhappy and taking away their hard-won dollars. It became excellent because doing otherwise was suicidal.

Also among the highest-spending school systems: Washington D.C. Seen the stats from that system? Pitiful.

And, recall the Kansas City example. (Don't know about it? Look here: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-298.html) The most lavish overfunding imaginable wasn't able to overcome the intrinsic weakness of a system designed to be very responsive to feedback from unions and bureaucrats, and regulators, but utterly unresponsive to competitive pressure (no competition) and parental choices.

No, it's not the money that's the problem. It's that the system is designed with all the wrong incentives.

I remember back in the 70's when they went to the high school in D.C. and gave a 5th Grade Spelling test to the teachers. 40% failed! I also remember a college graduated NBA Basketball player going to classes in elementary school to finally really begin to learn something.Even President Carter didn't trust the D.C. Schools to educate Amy. And what about "politically correct" social promotion to those students who don't even know how to spell their own name because they might be traumatized by having to repeat a grade? How's that for government mandated and supervised education in America?

I have fooled with those silly mailroom denials for more than twenty years, and have concluded that the Directors Review Committee (DRC) must be comprised of the most undereducated, developmentally challenged, Victorian minded puritanicals in the English speaking world. I was especially confirmed of this when I called one unit and while waiting for the supervisor was entertained by Evangelical Preaching blaring in the back ground -- not much literary thinking taking place there.

Many books on the criminal mind, by well respected experts, are books which TDCJ denies on grounds that they encourage riots (a description of the Stanford Prison Experiment ), or that a prisoner therapy session contains child abuse issues, foul language, expressions of anger, and racial prejudice. Almost any text book or study of the criminal mind is banned for inappropriate and absurd reasons. I cannot imagine the inconsistent and foolish minds that make these decisions.
National Geographic was denied because of a fuzzy picture of a young, naked, native boy diving for pearls.

Fortunately, I have occasionally been able to find a sane mind in the system to overrule its DRC, but the struggle is long and expensive. A denied, later approved, book which is returned to the family or sender, must be repurchased and resent by an approved free world vendor.

Judging from mailroom policies, rehabilitation is not a TDCJ priority.

I have fooled with those silly mailroom denials for more than twenty years, and have concluded that the Directors Review Committee (DRC) must be comprised of the most undereducated, developmentally challenged, Victorian minded puritanicals in the English speaking world. I was especially confirmed of this when I called one unit and while waiting for the supervisor was entertained by Evangelical Preaching blaring in the back ground -- not much literary thinking taking place there.

Many books on the criminal mind, by well respected experts, are books which TDCJ denies on grounds that they encourage riots (a description of the Stanford Prison Experiment ), or that a prisoner therapy session contains child abuse issues, foul language, expressions of anger, and racial prejudice. Almost any text book or study of the criminal mind is banned for inappropriate and absurd reasons. I cannot imagine the inconsistent and foolish minds that make these decisions.
National Geographic was denied because of a fuzzy picture of a young, naked, native boy diving for pearls.

Fortunately, I have occasionally been able to find a sane mind in the system to overrule its DRC, but the struggle is long and expensive. A denied, later approved, book which is returned to the family or sender, must be repurchased and resent by an approved free world vendor.

Judging from mailroom policies, rehabilitation is not a TDCJ priority.

As the parent of a twenty year-old "suburbanite" (see Texdem20 above) male incarcerated in the TDCJ, I can vouch for the fact that not all inmates are illiterate. Please see my son's blog at waiting-on-the-inside.blogspot.com to verify this. Although the blog is maintained by family members (heaven forbid that inmates should have access to computers or the corrupting influences of the World Wide Web!) the content is his own as he sends to us via snail mail.
We, too, have been baffled by the books denied to our son for reasons cited above.
And, in response to the comment from jccovici "Judging from mailroom policies, rehabilitation is not a TDCJ priority", we have discovered that, according to the mindset of petty, prejudiced, but politically aggressive DA's and district judges in Texas, rehabilitation is NEVER a priority. The more punishment, the better, in their opinions. Why do you think that it is no longer referred to as the Texas Dept. of "Corrections"?

“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” - Abraham Lincoln

SOME PEOPLE ARE SO FULL OF THEM SELVES......WHY WOULDNT A PRISONER KNOW HOW TO READ? JUST BECAUSE THEIR IN PRISON DOESNT MAKE THEM LESS OF A PERSON. MOST PRISONERS KNOW MORE THEN A COLLEGE GRADUATE ANYWAYS

SOME PEOPLE ARE SO FULL OF THEM SELVES......WHY WOULDNT A PRISONER KNOW HOW TO READ? JUST BECAUSE THEIR IN PRISON DOESNT MAKE THEM LESS OF A PERSON. MOST PRISONERS KNOW MORE THEN A COLLEGE GRADUATE ANYWAYS

SOME PEOPLE ARE SO FULL OF THEM SELVES......WHY WOULDNT A PRISONER KNOW HOW TO READ? JUST BECAUSE THEIR IN PRISON DOESNT MAKE THEM LESS OF A PERSON. MOST PRISONERS KNOW MORE THEN A COLLEGE GRADUATE ANYWAYS