Why can’t I have my book?
I am fed up with Independent Prisoner Complaints Investigations (IPCI) failing to carry out a proper investigation by talking to both parties. IPCI always takes the account of warders as gospel, even ignores the rules of law and prison rules as they see fit.
I had a book sent in by a friend, and this prison said I cannot have the book because it has strong views, as if I’m a five-year-old who has to be managed. I even quoted Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Still, IPCI failed to hold up my complaint, agreeing with the prison that I cannot have the book.
I simply want my book and if I must comply with Prison Rules, so too should warders and governors.
Editor’s note: Article 10 of the ECHR, enshrined in UK law in the Human Rights Act, guarantees the right to free speech, including the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority. However, prisons in England and Wales operate under the Public Protection Policy Framework, which gives governors the power to ban particular books, either for individual prisoners or prison-wide, if they believe it necessary “to maintain good order and discipline”. Examples cited in the Policy Framework include books deemed to be “religiously provocative” or those “that might promote intolerant attitudes or beliefs”, but there could be other grounds. IPCI investigates whether governors have broken prison rules, but with this rule granting governors such a wide-ranging power, one can see why the investigator’s decision in this case came down in favour of the prison.
Replying to “Why Can’t I have my book?”
HMP Frankland will not allow my son to have a Collins paperback dictionary that I purchased from the approved UK Waterstone’s bookseller and they shipped it directly to the prison. And I have an email conformation from the bookstore that the dictionary was delivered to the prison on 3 Jan 2026.
Since I am in the USA, I have no other way to send books to my son for Christmas.
Also his sister sent him 6 books from Waterstone’s for Christmas, and my son has received notice from the prison that two of them have arrived and they are not allowing them through to him.
My son was told that they have a new policy that requires when friends and family send in books that they have to send in a copy of their photo ID to allow the books through.
Which, of course, makes no sense at all when you are ordering online directly from one of the approved booksellers. There’s nothing in the books that should have been disallowed.
This is an ongoing problem with Frankland refusing books from approved sellers. Back in the summer. I had ordered a journal notebook from Waterstones that was shipped to the prison and then they told him that it wasn’t allowed because “notebooks are not allowed from home source”. But it wasn’t something shipped in from a family member’s home, it came directly from an approved bookseller.
I would like to know why I can’t send books to my son that come right off the shelf of an “approved” bookseller in England and goes directly to the prison?