Inmates can no longer receive book donations. They have to buy them

&quot;When there were five vendors, 77 books were available for purchase and 24 of the titles were coloring books.&quot; They&#x27;ve added a sixth vendor, but it doesn&#x27;t say how many titles are available now.<p>I think this is truly shameful. I can&#x27;t think of any good reason to deny inmates books with a few exceptions. Much like increased costs to make phone calls or replacing in person visits with expensive video-conferencing technology this is just another way to extract some money from prisons.

What is the purpose of prisons?<p>If it is penitence and rehabilitation, this makes no sense.<p>If it simply to incarcerate people for a while to make their lives difficult and make them not want to reoffend, this makes the wardens’ and guards’ life more difficult.<p>I suppose if the objective is to demonstrate righteous wrath and judgement then this is a good idea. However such demonstration is not likely to make society safer.

&gt;Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office has made the point that inmates still have access to prison libraries, but some say it’s not enough.<p>Sickening that the state is gouging people (and families) least able to afford it or contest the action. Not surprising it comes from the most corrupt governor (Cuomo) in the most corrupt state (New York) in the country. This is a governor who literally disbanded his own commission to investigate corruption when it started investigating his own corruption<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;07&#x2F;23&#x2F;nyregion&#x2F;governor-andrew-cuomo-and-the-short-life-of-the-moreland-commission.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;07&#x2F;23&#x2F;nyregion&#x2F;governor-andrew-...</a><p>Nobody should have any doubt that Cuomo and&#x2F;or his political allies are getting lucrative kickbacks from the small group of for-profit corporations that stand to benefit from this despicable act.

“At three New York prisons” is critically omitted (not by HN, it&#x27;s a defect in the source headline.)

this is a boring dystopia for us, but two layers of it for the inmates

This is wrong. So wrong , money really blinds. The idea of for profit prisons is an abomination, giving incentives for increasing the amount of incarcerated people is crazy and sad. It is also asking for corruption.

Trump might be in office, but how is America going to get any better if blue states like New York and California can not even run a decent prison system?