British newspaper The Guardian recently published an article on Romania’s so-called “prison literature”, after famous business magazine The Economist was the first to bring this academic movement under international attention in an article published in October last year.

The article in The Guardian focuses on several of Romania’s richest who have managed to get their jail sentences reduced by publishing books.

“Dan Voiculescu, one of Romania’s richest men and owner of several television stations, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in August 2014 for corruption. Since then, he has reportedly written eight scientific papers – a startling achievement by any standards,” the article reads.

The Romanian law allows convicted prisoners to have 30 days removed from their jail sentences for each book they write. This loophole, which apparently has existed in the legislation for many years, has been used more intensely in the past three years, as many high-profile businessmen and politicians have been convicted for corruption, starting with former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase.

Some 415 scientific works written by prisoners were published between the start of 2013 and December 2015, according to data The Guardian received from Romania’s prison administration. In 2012, there were just seven such books published.

“There are strong suggestions that many of the books are being written by ghostwriters or at least heavily guided by outside research assistants, who then pass the text on to the prisoners who handwrite them and pay for a small print run of a few hundred copies,” the article goes on.

This loophole thus indirectly affects Romania’s fight against corruption, as many white-collar prisoners manage to get out of jail after serving just relatively small fractions of their sentences.

Romanian prison literature gets poor review in The Economist

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: daivoiculescu.net)