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Welcome to the EuroPris Knowledge Management System. The table below shows questions and responses from European National Agencies. Select a question for more information or use the filters on the left to narrow down questions based on Agency or Category.
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Introduction: Following a High Court ruling in 2014, prisons in England and Wales must allow books to be handed in at visits and sent into prisons by friends and family. Books are not be treated as a privilege and are key to rehabilitation and education. However, we have found this comes with some risks regarding drugs (e.g. Spice) being impregnated in books and magazines. It would be useful for us to understand how this is dealt with within other prison jurisdictions across Europe.
Books with legal depot and imprint are fully allowed in prisons and may also be sent by relatives.
Do you allow books to be purchased for prisoners via external retailers by friends/ family?Yes. Books may be bought and brought into prison, as long as they are legal ones with legal depot.
What security measures do you have in place to check for illicit enclosures in books?All packages sent to prison from external environment must be checked by security prison officers in order to detect any illicit content, whatever it is.
What is your policy on prisoners accessing periodicals? Are your policies on these different to books, how so?Press and newspapers are also allowed in prison, being specially useful at school for inmates. Usually, all newspapapers have legal depot, so they do not pose any risk for security.
Do you allow books to enter prison in any other way?Books enter prison by three ways: relatives, who may bring them during their visits; library, which may be found in almost all prisons; and inmates, who may bring them after leaves from prison.
What library provision do you offer? How does this operate?It depends on the prison itself. It is usually located next to the school, and provide a wide range of books (novels, history, biographies and some specific books on some topics of interest). Donation of books is also allowed. These places are usually managed by inmates, under the supervisión of officers. All inmates are allowed to pick up one of the books, to be returned afterwards.
Do you limit/ control the number of books allowed by each prisoner?No great amount of anything may be stored in the cells (including personal objetcs and belongings). That goes specially for food, clothes and drinks, but also books. It does not make any sense to have a personal library. In any case, there is no specific limitation of books.
Do you allow the use of Audible/Kindles?Not in ordinary prisons, but they are allowed in open-regime.
Yes, but the books will be examined by personnel to ensure that there has been no tampering before the client (prisoner) gets access to the books. Normally the client also has to receive an approval in advance before he or she can receive books by post or in connection to a visit. The following is regulated in the Act on Imprisonment (Swedish Code of Statutes 2010:610) (chapter 5 section 1): A prisoner may receive and possess books, periodicals and newspapers, but not those that can (1) jeopardise good order or security, or, (2) be assumed to counteract the treatment he or she is undertaking. Otherwise, a prisoner may receive and possess the personal possessions that are justified having regard to the fact that it must be possible to undertake enforcement in a purposeful way.
Do you allow books to be purchased for prisoners via external retailers by friends/ family?Yes, for more information see the answer to the previous question.
What security measures do you have in place to check for illicit enclosures in books?The books will be examined by personnel to ensure that they haven’t been tampered with. This means that the personnel will go through the book and for example look for unauthorized objects, notes or if the book have been tempered with like being impregnated. Technical equipment, where available (for example X-rays and metal detectors) can also be used. An examination of a consignment (for example a letter or a parcel) may take place for two purposes. The first purpose is to investigate whether the item contains any unauthorized item. Unauthorized objects refer to personal belongings that an inmate may not receive and possess. The second purpose is to investigate whether the consignment is part of an ongoing or planned criminal activity, a planned deviation or some other similar procedure. The legal conditions are the same regardless of the prisons security classification. However, this does not mean that all consignments will be routinely checked at all institutions. An assessment of what is required with regard to order or safety must always be made. The following is regulated regarding mail in the Act on Imprisonment (chapter 7): Section 6 Mail between a prisoner and a lawyer (Sw. advokat), a Swedish administration or an international organisation that has been recognised by Sweden as competent to receive complaints from private individuals, shall be forwarded without examination. If there is reason to assume that the information about the sender of such mail to a prisoner is incorrect, the mail in question may be examined in order to investigate the identity of the sender. Section 7 In cases other than those referred to in Section 6, mail to or from a prisoner in a prison may be examined if this is necessary having regard to good order or security. The purpose of the examination shall be to examine whether the item of correspondence (1) contains any prohibited article, or (2) is part of an ongoing or planned criminal activity, a planned escape or some similar endeavour.
What is your policy on prisoners accessing periodicals? Are your policies on these different to books, how so?The policy for periodicals are the same as for books.
Do you allow books to enter prison in any other way?A client may bring a book with him or her when arriving to the prison, a book may be received via mail, from a visitor or by ordering via mail order.
What library provision do you offer? How does this operate?There are different kinds of library services in prisons, some have librarians as staff but most common is regular visits of a librarian from the community library. There are some amount of books for loan in the prison, how many differs between prisons. Clients may also borrow books from the community library.
Do you limit/ control the number of books allowed by each prisoner?There is no set number of books that a client may have in his or her room (cell). Although, the amount has to be in a quantity that doesn’t make it difficult to do a visitation of the room.
Do you allow the use of Audible/Kindles?No. For security reasons clients in prison have no access to the Internet, regardless of the prisons security classification
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Handing over books to prisoners during a visit is not allowed (the above does not apply to consular offices, diplomatic missions). The prisoner may receive the books in a package sent by a natural or legal person designated by the prisoner.
Do you allow books to be purchased for prisoners via external retailers by friends/ family?Shopping through external sellers is not prohibited.
What security measures do you have in place to check for illicit enclosures in books?In general, the following are used to prevent the introduction, possession or removal of illicit items (a) means for detecting the presence of alcoholic beverages, narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, explosives, explosive devices and explosive systems, (b) a frame metal detector, a hand-held metal detector or other metal detection device, (c) an X-ray for the inspection of vehicles, goods and luggage, (d) a service dog for scent work. A handler with a drug-sniffing service dog conducts a search of packages and correspondence of inmates in a designated room, and the books delivered with the package are also checked. When a book is handed over during a visit, the officer on duty is also obliged to check the contents (whether it does not promote national, racial, ethnic, religious intolerance, fascism...) and whether there is any unauthorised item (a file, a letter...) in the book.
What is your policy on prisoners accessing periodicals? Are your policies on these different to books, how so?There are two ways in which prisoners can access the periodical press (daily newspapers and magazines). The first way is that the prisoner subscribes to it at his own expense. Family members and other persons may also subscribe to the periodical press. Subscription newspapers are delivered to the prisoner by the postal undertaking. The second way of access to the periodical press by the prisoner is in the form of a parcel. In this case, the method of checking and delivery is identical to that for the delivery of books.
Do you allow books to enter prison in any other way?Books may be donated to the prisons on the basis of a written donation contract; before the contract is concluded, the donors shall submit to the prison a list of the titles of the books to be donated. The donation contract shall be concluded according to the current needs of the library, the thematic suitability and the possibility of storing the donated books.
What library provision do you offer? How does this operate?Libraries have been set up in each prison for the use of inmates, who have access to a catalogue of books. The method and time of borrowing books shall be regulated by the library's borrowing regulations. The prison library is located in separate premises. The activities of the prison library are carried out by a designated staff member of the prison, who manages the prison librarian who is an inmate. For inmates who do not have free access to the selection of books in the prison library, the designated staff member shall ensure the selection of books through the book catalogue and shall carry out a thorough check of the books when they are borrowed and handed over, so that the books do not contain unauthorised items and references.
Do you limit/ control the number of books allowed by each prisoner?There is no limit to the number of books an inmate is allowed. The number of books is limited by the possibilities of storing them in the personal belongings locker.
Do you allow the use of Audible/Kindles?The use of electronic book readers is not permitted.
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Prisoners can receive books from their visitors or by post.
Do you allow books to be purchased for prisoners via external retailers by friends/ family?Prisoners can buy books at their own expense via the prison, or receive books purchased by their family and/or friends in bookstores, antique stores or other external retailers.
What security measures do you have in place to check for illicit enclosures in books?The security check of the package is carried out with an X-ray device. Books are also inspected visually and manually.
What is your policy on prisoners accessing periodicals? Are your policies on these different to books, how so?Printed publications such as newspapers, magazines and journals are an integral part of the library material and can be borrowed from the prison library. They can also be purchased in the prison store, which allows prisoners to access external information and news from the community, nationally and internationally. Procurement and borrowing procedures are the same as for books.
Do you allow books to enter prison in any other way?Library materials come mainly through donations to prisons. A prisoner can bring books with them on arrival to prison, or on return from the home-leave, or he can buy books from his own funds with the mediation of the prison store. Considering that we have prisoners who are foreign citizens, we obtain books through donations from embassies of foreign countries, from public libraries and from NGO projects. Through the cooperation of prisons and local libraries, book loans are realized in some prisons, where the local library lends to the prison library a certain number of books for which inmates show interest.
What library provision do you offer? How does this operate?The library material usually includes the following genres: drama novels, encyclopaedia, science fiction, humorous and crime novels, travelogues, books of religious content, books for self-help, spiritual renewal etc. Prisoners have access to all laws and regulations related to the enforcement of criminal sanctions and measures. They are also interested in professional books of legal content. In larger penal institutions (penitentiaries), access to the library collection is directly facilitated by the communication between the prisoner who is employed as a librarian in the prison library and the prisoner who uses the library services. In smaller penal institutions (prisons), prisoners submit a list of books, and the prison officer delivers the requested books from the prison library.
Do you limit/ control the number of books allowed by each prisoner?Prisoners can borrow a maximum of three books from the prison library, but they can also have their own books in line with the House Rules of the Prison (as a rule limited to 3 books in a room) and all additional books that they need in the training process. The number of books in a cell is limited, for organizational (spatial limitation) and security reasons.
Do you allow the use of Audible/Kindles?The use of Audible/Kindles is currently not implemented in Croatian prison libraries.
Receipt of authorized items by an inmate occurs: - During visits under a visitation permit or when an approved prison visitor is present; - By direct delivery during visits carried out within the framework of a visiting permit; - By parcel post for the detainee who does not benefit from visits under a visiting permit, after approval by the head of the institution; - By deposit at the prison, by approved prison visitors or persons holding a visiting permit, outside of visits, after agreement by the head of the institution. In these cases, the object is handed over to the prison staff, who then passes it on to the recipient prisoner after checking it. The time limit for handing over to the detainee takes into account the time needed to carry out security checks. The head of the institution may refuse to accept a parcel if it is likely to pose a threat to the security of persons and the institution.
Do you allow books to be purchased for prisoners via external retailers by friends/ family?Friends and family of the detainees have the possibility to buy books through external retailers, which will be given to the persons concerned after authorization and control by the staff of the establishment under the conditions mentioned above.
What security measures do you have in place to check for illicit enclosures in books?The reception of books and periodicals, whether sent by post or delivered to the visiting room, is systematically subject to control of the objects received before delivery to the recipient (in terms of content, books that could present a threat to the security of persons and the establishment are not authorized). The control carried out is as follows : o Visual check, including the presence of an ISBN; o If necessary, an X-ray tunnel check. In addition, the Minister of Justice, or his delegate, may prohibit detainees from accessing written or audiovisual publications containing serious threats against the security of persons and establishments, or abusive or defamatory statements or signs against prison officers and employees of the public prison service. These decisions must be brought to the attention of the prison population by means of a posting in detention. Finally, the head of the institution may decide to initiate an adversarial procedure to withhold mail/works on the basis of article L122-1 of the Code of Public Relations with the Administration.
What is your policy on prisoners accessing periodicals? Are your policies on these different to books, how so?Detainees have access to books, newspapers and periodicals in the library of the institution. Detainees may continue to receive (under the conditions mentioned in answer 1.) newspapers, magazines and publications to which they subscribe.
Do you allow books to enter prison in any other way?Detainees have the possibility of purchasing newspapers or books through the canteen. Also, within the framework of distance learning and training, detainees can receive learning materials. Some establishments distribute newspapers to detainees on a daily basis (by decision of the Executive Committee).
What library provision do you offer? How does this operate?Each institution has a library and organizes its operation. The hours and days of access to the libraries in the buildings are posted on the signs provided for this purpose on the first floor of the building concerned. Inmates can be hired to take care of this space (library assistants). The formalization of local partnerships (public libraries, bookstores, media libraries, regional book agencies, etc.) is strongly encouraged in order to organize the management of collections and the animation of the library. These partnerships allow for the renewal of the library's holdings (books, magazines, periodicals). Annual meetings are generally organized between the partner and the institution in order to assess the past year and to define the orientations/actions planned for the current or future year. Also, activities (by the partner, SPIP or others) can be held in the libraries.
Do you limit/ control the number of books allowed by each prisoner?For security reasons, it is forbidden to clutter the cells with excessive storage of magazines, books or periodicals as well as any other object. The storage of books received from the outside or lent by other detainees may therefore be limited in this sense. Books/magazines/newspapers taken from detainees are placed in their individual searches and returned on their release.
Do you allow the use of Audible/Kindles?The Digital Detention System (NED) is currently being tested in some French prisons, with the aim of providing digital access to facilitate internal procedures for life in detention (canteen, viewing of personal accounts, instruction of requests to the detention services, viewing of information notes distributed by the establishment) as well as access to the necessary supports for integration procedures (follow-up of training with regional and associative partners and national education). However, this support does not currently provide access to digitized books.
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In most prisons it is not allowed to hand in or send books by private persons from outside, exceptions may be granted in case books can be controlled easily.
Do you allow books to be purchased for prisoners via external retailers by friends/ family?In closed prisons generally no, in open institutions regulations may differ.
What security measures do you have in place to check for illicit enclosures in books?Regular checks in prison libraries or upon reception of books.
What is your policy on prisoners accessing periodicals? Are your policies on these different to books, how so?Subscriptions to periodicals or newspapers are possible at one's own expense. At larger institutions a small range of newspapers / periodicals is made available in the common roosm or the library.
Do you allow books to enter prison in any other way?In most prisons, books can be ordered / bought upon request at retailers or borrowed from external libraries via the institution (by the social / education / administration department of the prison).
What library provision do you offer? How does this operate?Organised and financed by the institution itself, prisons offer a on-site prison library (or in small facilities at least a bookshelf). Cooperation with public libraries are rare. The prison libraries are either accessible directly or books can be selected in a catalogue.
Do you limit/ control the number of books allowed by each prisoner?In most prisons there is a set maximum of books that can be borrowed from the prison library at once. Privately owned books in cells may not exceed available shelf space.
Do you allow the use of Audible/Kindles?In most places, audibles on CD/tape/Mp3 would be allowed (borrowed from the library or bought via the prison). In closed facilities, the use of Kindles or other e-readers is mostly forbidden due to their WIFI connectivity.
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In Latvian prisons, normative acts do not provide for visitors to hand over books, magazines or other periodicals to prisoners during visits (for example, short-term or long-term visits). While, it is allowed to include newspapers, magazines, books (except literature on combat sports, weapons, pornography) in parcels and consignments, that is, relatives or other persons have the opportunity to send books directly to prison to the prisoner in a parcel or deliver books as a consignment (parcel and consignment is the only way relatives, friends, acquaintances can bring books to prison for the prisoner).
Do you allow books to be purchased for prisoners via external retailers by friends/ family?Relatives and other persons are not allowed by law to subscribe to periodicals for prisoners, but these persons have the opportunity to freely purchase and transfer periodicals to prisoners using parcels or consignments. On the other hand, the normative acts provide that, while imprisoned, prisoners are allowed to subscribe to periodicals from the funds of their personal account. An exception is made for the genres of the periodicals (except literature on combat sports, weapons, pornography). Ordering books from external retailers is not specified in normative acts, so this activity is not practiced in prisons.
What security measures do you have in place to check for illicit enclosures in books?In order to prevent threats to prison or public safety, as well as the transfer of illegal objects or substances to prisoners, prison officials verify the contents of parcels and consignments addressed to prisoners. When checking the books, magazines or other periodicals received in parcels and consignments, prison officials carry out manual inspection operations by hand (using the official’s senses, such as touch, hearing, sight and smell), as well as, if necessary, use service dogs to smell out prohibited substances (for example, narcotics) or an X-ray machine to perform a visual diagnosis of the book.
What is your policy on prisoners accessing periodicals? Are your policies on these different to books, how so?See answer to Question 2.
Do you allow books to enter prison in any other way?See answer to Question 1.
What library provision do you offer? How does this operate?In Latvian prisons, the provision of books is sufficiently wide and diverse. Prisoners are offered reading opportunities of various genres (for example., novels, fantasy, fiction, psychology, dictionaries, encyclopedias, editions of normative acts etc.). At the same time, in order for the prisoner to receive books from the library, he/she must apply in writing to the Head of the prison with a request to issue books for reading, indicating the number of books, title of the book, author or at least the desired genre. The librarian issues books to the prisoner after the approval of the Head of the prison is received.
Do you limit/ control the number of books allowed by each prisoner?According to normative acts, one prisoner can keep seven books in a cell.
Do you allow the use of Audible/Kindles?The use of audibles/kindles is not practiced in Latvian prisons.
Section V of Circular 2/2010, regulating the objects that can be entered into prison and those that are forbidden, establishes that books are allowed to have books in their cells. Family and friends can send books to their relatives in prison via de parcel office in the prison.
Do you allow books to be purchased for prisoners via external retailers by friends/ family?Family and friends can only send books to inmates via the dedicated parcel office at the prison.
What security measures do you have in place to check for illicit enclosures in books?According to art. 50 of the Prison Regulations, family and friends can only bring books with a hard cover, magazines and other objects that are allowed. These objects have to be delivered at the dedicated office of the prison and the sender/giver should prove their identity. Once delivered, prison officers will keep a record of the parcel and the receiver. Subsequently, prison officers scan the objects inside the parcel and review all of them manually. If the books have been subject to manipulation, this would be identified by the prison office rand would intercept them. However, currently there is no device or mechanism in place specifically prepared to identify book pages or other papers that may have been impregnated with forbidden substances without a visible trace. Inmates can receive up to two parcels a month and its weight cannot exceed 5 Kg except for the books weight, publications and clothing.
What is your policy on prisoners accessing periodicals? Are your policies on these different to books, how so?There is no other way to enter books into the prison unless it is via the libràries or the parcel office.
Do you allow books to enter prison in any other way?The Ministry of Justice officially receives three newspapers in each prison which are made available to all inmates at the central library of every prison. In addition, at the central library of the prison inmates can also access to online newspapers. In the central library of every prison, internet access is restricted with security filters. It is also possible to access to other webpages which have been previously registered on demand and after a positive assessment.
What library provision do you offer? How does this operate?There is a central library in every prison which offers a loan service, internet access, and allows for book consultation in the room. In addition, there are smaller libraries in each prison unit were inmates have a basic access to a computer for consultation to a limited number of websites such as Wikipedia, legislation and newspapers. Inmates have to sign up when they arrive and when they leave the library to their unit.
Do you limit/ control the number of books allowed by each prisoner?Generally, the loan is limited to 3 books per inmate for a maximum of 30 days. These limits can be exceeded in exceptional circumstances.
Do you allow the use of Audible/Kindles?Currently it is not allowed but it is foreseen that its use will be introduced in short.