TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Jan 8, 2025

In 2024, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) changed its policy regarding who is allowed to mail books to incarcerated individuals, removing a number of books-to-prisons nonprofits from its list of approved book vendors, according to WPLN News. Now, prisoners who want a specific book must buy it, or have someone else buy it for them, from a more limited number of authorized booksellers and publishers. A TDOC spokesperson said the change was made “to mitigate the introduction of contraband through mail.” The director of the Prison Book Program said the policy will significantly reduce the number of prisoners who can access books. “You need a loved one on the outside with both the connectivity and the disposable income to order books directly from one of those sources. And that’s almost nobody in prison,” she says.