Best Practices for E-reader Tablets in Carceral Institutions
Produced by the Coalition for Carceral Access to Literature and Learning
(C.A.L.L.)
The introduction of e-reader tablets to carceral institutions is a new and growing
trend. When implemented in a way that prioritizes incarcerated people and their
loved ones, e-reader access can expand incarcerated people’s access to literature
and educational materials. However, e-readers are today being introduced into
prisons and jails across the country in ways that unfairly and counterproductively
impact the rights and interests of incarcerated readers.
Namely:
E-readers are being introduced in ways that supplant rather than
·
supplement access to physical books provided through direct delivery or
prison libraries.
E-readers are often costly and should be offered free of charge to
·
incarcerated individuals.
E-readers tablets frequently avoid disclosing fees for tablet features
·
that increase costs for individual users.
E-reader content often comes with predatory pricing structures that
·
exploit low-income families.
E-reader tablets offer a limited selection of reading materials that can
·
be woefully insufficient for incarcerated readers’ needs.
E-readers may allow carceral institutions to monitor and surveil
·
incarcerated individuals.
E-readers may allow carceral institutions to monitor and surveil
·
incarcerated individuals. Prison practices around e-readers risk normalizing
the treatment of access to literature as a privilege and not a right.

Recent statements from prison and jail officials underscore a troubling course of
action, where the expansion of digital books is cited as justifying a reduction in
access to physical books. For example, in September 2018, Pennsylvania
prohibited the purchase of physical books and donations to incarcerated
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individuals. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections cited a “transition to
e-books” to help justify the decision, which impacted over 47,000 incarcerated
Pennsylvanians.
As advocates for the literary and educational needs of incarcerated people, we are
very concerned over how these trends may undermine their access to literature and
educational materials. We believe that the introduction and use of e-readers in
prisons will accelerate, becoming an increasingly common avenue of access to
literature. The policies that carceral institutions and e-reader vendors put in place
today may determine future access to literature for more than two million
incarcerated people across the United States.
To this end, we propose the following set of “best practices” to guide e-reader
vendors and carceral institutions, in order to ensure that e-readers best serve the
literary, educational needs, and interests of incarcerated people and their families.
__________________________________________________________________
Definitions
“E-readers” – refers to digital tablets used to access e-books and other digital
content or literature.
“Infrastructure” – refers to the technological infrastructure needed to maintain the
proper functionality of e-readers including, but not limited to: charging stations,
internet connectivity with sufficient bandwidth for downloading, sync devices to
kiosks, upload/download content, and coordinating local area networks (LANs)
wirelessly.
“Literature” and “Literary” – refers to written materials, including but not limited
to: books, magazines, newsletters, academic journals, and other academic and legal
documents.
“Digital Content” – refers to literature, music, films, educational materials,
applications, and other content for use on e-readers.

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I.

Expand Access to Literature

E-readers should supplement, not replace, access to physical books in
carceral institutions or facilities. E-readers should contribute to the
overall literary environment.
● Access to e-readers must never justify reductions in access to
physical books and other physical literary materials. This
includes, but is not limited to, physical materials available in
libraries, chapels, and classrooms. Books ordered through or
donated by prison book organizations and outside book,
vendors must also remain accessible or available.
● Access to e-readers must never justify a reduction in funds
allocated to libraries in carceral institutions.
● Access to digital books must not be revoked as a disciplinary
measure: access to literature is a right, not a privilege.
● Access to e-readers must not supplant or replace in-person
education programs, including, but not limited to literacy,
continuing education, and English as second language classes,
as well as, college-in-prison programs.
● Facilities that adopt e-readers should explore how digital
materials can support existing programs inside carceral
institutions, including, but not limited to educational programs
that provide opportunities to earn a GED, a college degree,
trade skills, or any other higher education programs.
II.

Pricing

E-reader vendors increasingly use predatory pricing structures for
incarcerated persons to access digital tablet content. Departments of
Corrections enable providers to extract fees and payments from
incarcerated people with little oversight. The burden of communicating

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with the outside world or accessing literature primarily falls on the
families and friends of incarcerated people with few resources.
● E-reader tablets must be offered at no—or at minimum,
drastically reduced—cost to incarcerated people. E-readers
cannot be held up as expanding access to literature for
incarcerated people if the cost of purchasing a tablet is
prohibitive for a large portion of the incarcerated
population—as is currently the case.
● E-reader vendors must reject pay-per-use models. Per-minute
payment plans unfairly penalize incarcerated people with
learning and reading disabilities.
● E-reader vendors and carceral institutions must provide free
access to digital books that are already a part of the public
domain.
● E-reader vendors and carceral institutions must provide refunds
or repayments to incarcerated users in instances where
e-materials and e-books they paid for have been removed from
the devices that they use or when devices malfunction or break.
● E-reader vendors and carceral institutions must cover the costs
of e-book licensing fees, rather than pass the cost of these fees
on to incarcerated people, and prison officials must reallocate a
portion of prison budgets toward the provision of their
incarcerated population’s literary needs.

III.

E-reader Vendors and Content

E-reader vendors must prioritize and develop e-catalog offerings for
incarcerated people’s literary, educational, rehabilitative, and recreational
needs.
● E-reader vendors must make content that meets the literary,
cultural, recreational, and educational needs of incarcerated
populations, including by developing e-catalog collections in

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●

●
●

●

IV.

consultation with librarians, educators, and formerly
incarcerated people.
E-reader vendors must make content in multiple languages
available and be responsive to the cultural needs of incarcerated
populations.
E-reader vendors must make a public commitment to offer a
wide range of free content and update catalogs regularly.
E-reader vendors must make a variety of materials available for
use, including but not limited to, educational and recreational
materials. This includes offering content in partnership with
libraries and public institutions.
E-reader vendors must avoid or remove agreements that limit
incarcerated people’s access to materials made freely available
to the public, such as Project Gutenberg.
Infrastructure and Access

Digital infrastructure plays a critical role in incarcerated people’s ability
to access content through e-readers. Direct access to the internet is rarely
available to incarcerated individuals.
● Carceral institutions must provide consistent and regular access
to kiosks to upload and download content.
● Carceral institutions must provide a secure internet connection
of sufficient bandwidth, capable of uploading and downloading
all forms of digital content supported by e-readers (e.g., books,
media, and video), within reasonable times.
● Carceral institutions must provide rechargeable devices.
● Carceral institutions must provide regular maintenance for all
equipment needs, including through routine replacement
schedules for devices, kiosks, chargers, and network equipment
at no charge to incarcerated people.
● Carceral institutions must provide assistive technology for
incarcerated individuals with disabilities. This assistive

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technology must be used to supplement, not replace, assistive
devices already in use.
● Carceral institutions must comply with ADA (Americans with
Disabilities Act) regulations. Carceral institutions should also
develop plans to specifically measure and evaluate compliance
within a specific time frame.
● Carceral institutions and e-reader vendors must provide
continuous/uninterrupted access to their books and digital
content through e-readers.
V.

Privacy Rights

Carceral institutions, prison libraries, and e-reader vendors must respect
the longstanding precept of library institutions and librarians preserving
readers’ right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use, such as in
the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights and Code of
Ethics.
● Carceral institutions and e-reader vendors must make their
privacy policies and protect users’ privacy rights.
● Carceral institutions and e-reader vendors must publicize all
security, data management, and monitoring policies that
apply to incarcerated people's e-book catalogs or e-reading
practices.
● E-reader vendors must adopt guidelines for incarcerated
users’ privacy consistent with the privacy provisions in the
ALA Library Bill of Rights and the ALA Code of Ethics that
protects all readers' right to privacy and confidentiality
during their library use.

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VI.

Transparency

Contract negotiations between carceral institutions and e-reader vendors
lack transparency, making public oversight of these decisions
functionally impossible. This includes a lack of visibility over
profit-sharing provisions that may incentivize public officials to prioritize
paid-for content over free content. Business agreements, payment
structures, and other contractual provisions require greater transparency.
● Carceral institutions must proactively make public and
accessible all contracts between e-reader vendors and their
institutions, as well as all other contracts that affect incarcerated
people’s access to digital resources (such as with third-party
suppliers of digital content).
● Carceral institutions must make e-reader vendors commit to
making the complete catalog list, prices, and pricing structure
of digital content offerings for readers publicly available online,
as a precondition to any contractual agreement.
● Carceral institutions must make digital content restrictions
transparent to the public, including all relevant regulations,
content restrictions, and commitments to restrict content
specified in contracts between e-reader companies.
● Carceral institutions must make publicly available transcripts or
other documentation of any discussions with e-reader vendors
regarding prohibited or restricted content, including through (a)
maintenance of records of all conversations around content
inclusion or removal, and (b) ensuring the public availability of
these records.
● Carceral institutions must make public and accessible privacy
policies for incarcerated readers to ensure transparency and
public oversight.

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VII.

Working with Public Libraries

Public libraries near carceral institutions or with relationships to these
facilities can provide critical resources through their collections of digital
content or as a part of “e-resources” consortia. We encourage carceral
institutions, existing prison libraries, and e-reader vendors to explore
ways to work with public library systems to share licensed literature and
other digital content. We also support agreements that would make
incarcerated readers public library patrons and local lending library
community members, including agreements that allow for physical book
exchanges.
● Carceral institutions, in offering access to digital literature to
their incarcerated populations, should abide by the principles
outlined in the ALA document, “ Prisoners’ Right To Read,” as
well as the Library Bill of Rights and uphold the Core Values of
Librarianship, including access to information, patron privacy,
diversity, education, and lifelong learning, which should be
applied to incarcerated library patrons as equally as
non-incarcerated library patrons.
● Carceral institutions should include public libraries in crucial
decision-making processes that involve incarcerated people’s
access to literature.
● Carceral institutions should remove, to the greatest possible
extent, discrepancies between digital content offered to the
general public and offered to incarcerated people.
● Carceral institutions should proactively make public and
accessible all contracts or formal arrangements between
carceral institutions and public libraries.
● Carceral institutions and library systems should administer
library cards to incarcerated library patrons and encourage
access to public library resources to the greatest extent possible.

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Signed,

Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project
ACLU of West Virginia
Alliance for Higher Education in Prison
Ameelio
American Library Association
Appalachian Prison Book Project
Be Frank 4 Justice
Black & Pink-Milwaukee
Books Through Bars, Philadelphia
Books To Prisoners
Center for Resilient Individuals, Families and Communities (CRIFC)
Chicago Books to Women in Prison
Delaware Library Association
Emerson Prison Initiative
EveryLibrary
Exchange for Change
Fight for the Future
Filling the Gap
First State First Chance Prison Education Initiative at the University of Delaware
Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network
From Prison Cells to PhD
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Georgetown University Prisons and Justice Initiative
Hamilton-Herkimer CIPP at Mohawk CF (NY)
IL Coalition for Higher Education in Prison
Illinois Coalition for Higher Education in Prison
John Jay College Institute for Justice & Opportunity
Justice Arts Coalition
LGBT Books to Prisoners
Library Futures
Library Services to the Justice Involved
Nazareth College Jail Project
New York City Books Through Bars
All of Us or None, Ohio
PEN America
Pittsburgh Prison Book Project
Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project
Prison Book Program
Prison Journalism Project
Prison Scholar Fund
Prisoners Literature Project
Rebuilding Independence My Style
Returning Citizens
Rochester Education Justice Initiative
San Francisco Financial Justice Project
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San Francisco Public Library
Southwest Wisconsin Library System
Texas Advocates for Justice
The American Prison Writing Archive
The Chillon Project at Life University
The Community
The Jailhouse Lawyers Initiative of LEAH
The Petey Greene Program
Turning Points Resource Center
Wesleyan University Center for Prison Education
Worth Rises
X Books

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