[jdjdjrj]

Those questions you ask were already decided in a court of law by an elected or appointed judge and a jury of the subject's peers.

And if there is a better way to deal with contraband then what is it? HN wants to trust the experts on many topics, yet for some reason not on this topic.

[int_19h]

Not really, because 1) the court of law operates according to, well, the law, which is itself far from perfect - many things that are offenses probably shouldn't be, and many others should probably not mandate prison terms; and 2) none of those people you've mentioned get much if any say on how prisons are actually run.

In any case, when US locks up more of its population in relative terms than any other country in the world, I think the assumption that things are basically broken here should be the default - the onus is on those supporting the status quo to explain why US is special.

The better way to deal with contraband is electronic readers, just to give one obvious example.

[ohyeshedid]

> HN wants to trust the experts on many topics, yet for some reason not on this topic.

Where does your expertise in this topic come from?

[jdjdjrj]

Where did I claim to be an expert? I'm referring to the actions taken by the experts who oversee the prison system mentioned in the article.

[ohyeshedid]

Unqualified people fail upward, qualified people make mistakes, and some people are just crooked.

I wonder if the same folks banning books in prisons are the same folks that sell access licenses for trash pseudo-documentary tv shows in prison? You know the ones, they usually show you inmates using or trading dope or they'll show off some weapons. This is considered entertainment television programming.

I wouldn't be making appeals to others expertise without some skepticism, friend.

[jdjdjrj]

They didn't ban books. They banned books from random sources. Established retailers and other approved sources are not banned and there is a process for becoming approved. If you study corrections at all this is a very common policy and I'm surprised they did not have this already.

[ohyeshedid]

> If you study corrections at all

Hey friend, some people learn about corrections the hard way, so it's not assumptions and appeals to authority, it's a lived experience.

The approval processes of any vendors come with product restrictions, which function as bans.

[jdjdjrj]

Supreme court has upheld that some things can be banned if they are in the interest of maintaining the security of a detention facility. Inmates shouldn't be receiving books on how to make bombs for instance.