Alabama Prison law libraries to get computers for inmates

Anonymous Patron writes “Some Good News for patrons of Alabama’s prison libraries. Computers are to be installed in Alabama’s prison law libraries and work-release centers to give inmates more timely updates on court rulings, but not access to the Internet and e-mail.
“As inmates use the computer database system they are becoming more comfortable,” she said. The ratio is about one computer to 500 inmates.”

February 10, 2005 by Uncategorized 3

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3 Responses

  1. shoe says:
    February 10, 2005 at 5:52 pm

    I feel so behind the times

    Seeing as our ratio of computers for the public is about 1:7000.

    I don’t know what kind of problems with vandalism they face at a prison library in general… but they did mention they won’t have problems anymore with pages being ripped out of books… But what about when the hardware breaks down (and believe me, it will) or, worse yet, when someone doesn’t like what they read on Lexis Nexis and kicks a tower? It happens a lot in a public setting… why wouldn’t it happen in a prison setting, where I imagine emotions are amplified due to the situations people are in?

    I think it’s a good thing to offer, yes… but I think they’re going to find some hidden headaches along the way.

    Reply
  2. kylere says:
    February 10, 2005 at 8:06 pm

    Prisoners
    Sigh, the prison/judicial system in the US is so wrong the only way to start is a top down fix of everything.

    I was reading that one in 5 prisoners are doing time for marijuana related offenses but federal minimums keep them locked up while we early release people that do armed robberies, this alone lets you know there is a problem. We need to decriminalize some things, free up space, then make prison a place with NOTHING nice about it, no free college, no computers, no movies, no tv. Make it so intolerable that no one will dare to pull another crime ever. Put them out of chain gangs, and make them contribute enough work to cover the cost of their incarceration.

    I am sick of hearing about prisoners having better standards of living than the elderly in this country.

    Reply
  3. deborah says:
    February 11, 2005 at 12:35 am

    trying to stay with libraries, no taking the bait.

    law libraries in prisons aren’t intended to give criminals and villains perks that poor folks or the elderly don’t have, they are intended to give those who may have been wrongfully convicted access to resources necessary to organize their defenses or appeals. Without providing access to those resources, our criminal justice system runs the risk of falling (further) into an unfair morass in which only the privileged know how to work the system. Even truly guilty criminals have a right to know the laws that keep them incarcerated.

    as I am neither a law librarian nor a prison librarian, I lay no claims understanding whether computers are a good way or a bad way to bring this information to the incarcerated. But I strongly support the end goal.

    Reply

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