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<p> </p><p> </p><p>Up to 12 books may be held by prisoners in their cell at any one
time. Prisoners may have additional books stored locally at the prison. Every prison
has a library, to which every prisoner has access.</p><p> </p><p>Ministers have not
made any policy changes specifically about the availability of books in prisons. The
changes to the Incentives and Earned Privileges national policy framework we introduced
last year in relation to parcels were introduced to ensure consistency across the
estate and to make sure that security can be maintained. There have always been controls
on the sending of parcels into prisons, and allowing parcels to be sent in unrestricted
would be operationally unmanageable and would lead to a significant risk of drugs
and other illicit items being smuggled into prisons.</p><p> </p><p>The National Offender
Management Service works closely with the Shannon Trust to support schemes such as
'Toe by Toe', which includes peer mentoring to improve reading levels.</p>
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