5 September 2010
A Canadian federal judge in Vancouver has ruled that a prisoner is entitled to his own copy of a thesaurus, according to the Montreal Gazette. The judge ruled that a thesaurus is an “educational text” and not a “personal” book and that prison authorities should fork over the $23.14 to buy the Oxford University Press paperback for the prisoner. Prisoners in Canada have a personal expenditure budget, but this prisoner was over his limit and therefore submitted the invoice to the prison as an educational cost, which doesn’t fall under the “personal” category. Prison authorities denied the purchase, saying that thesauruses were available in the prison library.
The judge also cited the Humpty Dumpty scene from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass in his decision.
(Hat Tip: Martin Laplante, DSNA mailing list)
