The Krays: Thieves, murderers, authors

Members of the Conservative party in Britain have criticized the country’s prison systems for allowing inmates to borrow from prison library systems books that glorify crime and detail how to escape from jail. According to a report in The Guardian by Alison Flood, prison libraries have been found to include memoirs by notable criminals such as the notorious Kray Brothers alongside books such as Nine Lives: Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief, by Bill Mason, and Escape, by David McMillan, which explains how the author escaped from a prison in Thailand. “Jack Straw has said that he wants to prevent criminals from profiting from their memoirs, yet prison libraries have been purchasing their books to lend to other criminals,” observed Tory MP Dominic Grieve. “It beggars belief that books glorifying crime and violence are being made freely available to prisoners.”