The Pleasures Of Reading - In Jail!


Written by Huma Iqbal • Features • January 2010

A book publishing house has taken a commendable initiative by setting up a book club for the inmates of a well-known jail in Pakistan. Many a person who loved books but never had time to read, has caught up on his reading in jail. The nature of a public library and the reputation of its patrons may stand in contrast to that of a prison and its inmates, yet libraries in prisons are not an unusual phenomenon around the world.

The practice of book reading in Pakistani jails is relatively uncommon. The National Book Foundation has achieved a first by setting up the first book club in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi. This is one of the country's most well-known jails, occupied by many a political leader in the past and currently housing more than 5,000 prisoners, including women and juveniles.

The ‘free mind book club' aims to promote reading habits among inmates, besides providing them with easy access to recreational facilities and capacity-building, apart from the right to food, shelter and medical services.
Interestingly, the book club has been established in cell number 11, which was where the present Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani spent his time and wrote a book "Chah-e-Yousaf Se Sada."

Three separate sections of the book club have been planned, one each for women, men and juvenile prisoners. Members of the book club and their children would be able to buy books on discount prices from NBF bookshops across the country.

A number of incentives have been given to promote healthy book reading activities among prisoners. The book foundation will recommend curtailment of sentences of prisoners more inclined towards reading books. Compensation will also be provided to prisoners who write letters to authors. The letters will be sent to the writers with due permission from the jail superintendent, adding points to the prisoner's reading scale.
There are of course other long-term benefits of this project that need to be mentioned. Access to books will improve prison life by helping inmates pass their time more productively; it will also provide them an opportunity to pursue knowledge. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds will be able to raise their literacy levels, improve their educational qualifications and even take vocational correspondence courses, all while in jail!

Access to books can also help develop a deeper appreciation of the world of ideas and education as well as give a new direction and purpose to life. Publishers, bookstores and individuals would be encouraged to help further expand the Adiala Jail book club by donating books.

Politicians and other well-known people in the past have termed jails as their ‘teaching laboratories'. Many world leaders took advantage of the solitude that their jail sentence provided and wrote masterpieces, the lessons of which still echo in the hallways of history.

In the sub-continent, ‘Glimpses of World History' and ‘Discovery of India', collections of letters written by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to his daughter Indira Gandhi, now compiled in two volumes, are considered classics of Indian historical literature. These were written while Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was in prison.

Recently, when the Burmese Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was preparing for the possibility of a five year prison sentence, she planned to catch up on Winston Churchill's biography, besides reading novels by John le Carré, books on French history and Burmese-language works on Buddhism.

Social scientists say more such initiatives should be taken to ensure positive mental development of prisoners. Reading saves them from sinking deeper into a criminal mindset and allows them to build a strong foundation for their future lives, once they are out of prison.

Practically every prison in the US has a library of one description or the other. Some prisons in India, Uganda and Kenya too house libraries. It's good to see that a similar initiative has been taken in Pakistan and it is hoped that more such book reading opportunities will be provided to prisoners in other jails as well.