Reading Law in Prison

AuthorMorris L. Cohen
DOI10.1177/003288556804800103
Date01 April 1968
Published date01 April 1968
Subject MatterArticles
/tmp/tmp-18YBUPWsvWot5C/input
READING LAW IN PRISON
MORRIS L. COHEN *
THE INTEREST OF PRISONERS IN LAW BOOKS HAS GROWN MARKEDLY
with the general increase in prisoner litigation. This interest is fre-
quently frustrated, however, by restrictive prison rules, inadequate
prison libraries and an inability to reach legal materials outside of the
prison. Both the interest and the frustration are evidenced by prisoner
petitions to the Courts seeking relief from rules or practices which re-
strict access to law books. They can also be seen in the frequent re-
quests from prisoners for photocopies of pages from law books which
are received by law libraries all over the country.
Since adequate legal assistance is frequently unavailable to those
in prison, access to law books and the ability to do simple legal research
may determine the effectiveness of a prisoner’s access to the Courts.
Although one may doubt that such research and self-representation
are the most desirable means of legal assistance, it seems clear that
adequate professional counsel is not available to the vast majority of
prisoners today. Any survey of prisoner rights must therefore explore
restraints on the ability of prisoners to reach the current published
sources of our law.
Freedom to read and relatively free access to reading materials
are well established in our society today.’ The decisions of American
courts, particularly in the field of obscenity, have confirmed these rights
on many occasions, subject only to rather narrow restrictions on por-
nography. There are, of course, other limitations on the effective en-
joyment of these rights-limitations of money for the purchase of
books, of leisure time, of education, and sometimes simply a lack of
books themselves by virtue of the absence or inadequacy of libraries
and bookstores in many places. Despite these impediments, most of us,
have relatively few restraints on our reading today and those that exist
in the law have diminished greatly in recent years.
PRISON RESTRICTIONS
In prisons, however, the right to read, and particularly the right to
read the law, is drastically curtailed. Although the prison library is gain-
ing increasing acceptance as a useful part of the prison’s recreational
* Biddle Law Librarian and Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania.
1
See, for example, the widely accepted Library Bill of Rights, adopted June
18, 1948, and amended February 2, 1961 and June 27, 1967, by the Council of the
American Library Association.
21


and educational program, such facilities are still lacking in most institu-
tions and collections are usually meager in those libraries which do
ex.ist.2 Holdings of law books are particularly weak in prison libraries.
While books are frequently among the items of personal property that
prisoners can buy for themselves and receive as gifts, there is usually
close censorship as to the type of materials which can be acquired and
many restrictions on how, when and where they can be used.
There is a wide gap between professionally approved standards for
prison libraries and actual practice in this field. The American Correc-
tional Association has stated the relevant minimum standard as follows:
&dquo;No impediments shall be imposed upon the rights of any prisoner to
free access to books of law....&dquo; 3 But there are in fact many impedi-
ments imposed on this right in our prisons today.
A
survey of current prison practice indicates that while only about
half the states have express regulations governing the types of books
allowed in prison libraries or in the possession of...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT