Books for Prisoners
Books for Prisoners is an article published in the Weekly Dispatch on 9 april 1911.
Books for Prisoners
Convicts Show Preference for Works of Best Authors.
Books in prisons form the subject of a White Paper containing the report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the Home Secretary to inquire into the nature and supply of the literature allowed to gaol inmates. Certain religious books, the Bible, prayer-books, hymns, etc., books of moral instruction, and elementary school books are supplied to all prisoners, but "Library" books, including fiction, are not issued to prisoners until they have earned the right to read them by good conduct. The report shows that the literary requirements of a convict prison are as great those to be met with by the circulating library of a provincial town.
The works of the best English novelists are asked for to a surprising extent. There is always a considerable prison demand for Scott and Dickens. At Dartmoor, where the standard of education is high, Dumas, Rider Haggard, Mrs. Henry Wood, Dickens, Thackeray, Scott, and Shakespeare are in regular demand, while Chaucer, Pope and Southey have also their admirers. Generally speaking, Mrs. Henry Wood is the favourite prison author. Charles Reade is a great favourite and Marion Crawford, Seton Merriman, Besant and Rice, Clark Russell, Conan Doyle, Miss Braddon, Charlotte Yonge, and Marie Corelli are popular. The prisoners of inferior education ask for bound volumes of magazines because of the pictures. Better instructed convicts ask sometimes for philosophical and historical works, and among the recommendations of the committee is one that for such prisoners high-class reviews should be supplied.
