What about books sent directly from a book store? I didn't see that mentioned in the article and that used to be the way to send a book to an inmate. (I've known inmates in a few states.) Books could be sent directly from say Amazon; but, not from an individual. (The article's "Joe Blow off the street.")
hn_acker|1 month ago
That was THE way for individuals to send a book via mail to an inmate, and starting February 1st that will no longer be an available option [1]:
> Before the new policy, employees of the Department of Corrections inspected and decided, on a case-by-case basis, whether materials could be passed to those on the inside. Materials to incarcerated people were already limited to those sent directly from publishers or approved vendors, with bans on materials sent from individuals and unapproved organizations. Now, materials are allowed into the system only through requested donations to prison libraries and/or prison chaplains.
When I posted TFA, the Arkansas Division of Correction page about "Mail and Money" for inmates [2] had a line about the February 1st ban on mailed books etc. The line did not mention specific sources of mail, so I interpreted it as categorically applying to mailed books etc. from all sources (including bookstores) addressed to individual inmates. I'm kicking myself for not archiving the page when I posted TFA, because just now (a day and some hours later) I checked the page and the line had been deleted [3], except for a sloppily-left-in space right before "No food or care packages may be mailed to an inmate." The now-deleted line seems to have been added after January 12, because a Wayback Machine archive on January 12 says that "All books, magazines, newspapers and catalogs must be mailed directly from the publisher, bookstore, educational institution, or recognized commercial or charitable outlet." [4] (That is, the page previously mentioned specific sources of mail.)
[1] https://bookriot.com/arkansas-prison-book-ban/
[2] https://doc.arkansas.gov/correction/inmates/mail-and-money/
[3] https://archive.ph/qE7Zk
[4] https://web.archive.org/web/20260112235838/https://doc.arkan...