“Writers” in prison
The Romanian book market has a new supplier, as more than 330 books have been written from behind bars over the last year alone.
Florentin Căpitănescu, 07.01.2016, 13:59
A genuine book industry has developed in Romanian prisons in recent years as many convicts have suddenly, but not surprisingly, discovered an interest in writing. From politicians, including ministers, parliamentarians and mayors, to businesspeople, magistrates and sports stars, many have taken advantage of a legislative loophole. Law no. 254 from 2013, allows convicts to cut 30 days off their sentences for every scientific paper they publish or every patented invention or innovation. This has given many high profile inmates the possibility to become prolific writers.
Not only does this piece of legislation allow abuse, it also encourages it, because the reduction in the prison sentence is granted for every published book, its academic value only being vouched for by the stamp of an authorised publisher. Suspicions about the employment of ghost-writers in these cases are only natural given that many of the new published authors did not appear to have any intellectual ideas before going to jail. Indeed, many even lacked basic knowledge of language and grammar.
Their spectacular metamorphosis, as well as the fact that the number of books published from prison has increased exponentially, has raised some questions among the public and justice officials.
Justice minister Raluca Pruna herself said she had doubts about the academic nature of these papers. “I will conduct a very serious analysis to see, together with the National Penitentiary Administration, how the law has been applied; if I find that its application has been flawed or that the law has been violated, I wont shy away from action, minister Pruna said. She explained that only one such paper was written from 2007 to 2010, the figure growing to 20 between 2011 and 2013 before exceeding 330 in 2015.
It appears, however, that things are about to change. A proposal is already on the Senates agenda to amend the law on the execution of prison sentences to repeal the controversial provision. The initiators of the amendment say the current law encourages fraud, not to mention that writing a book in prison does not compensate for its authors antisocial behaviour. It remains to be seen how many such books will still be written by Romanias VIP convicts and, more importantly, what loopholes they will find to obtain an early release from prison.
(Translated by Cristina Mateescu; Edited by Diana Vijeu)
