Romania Probes Hundreds of Books Written by Prisoners

In this photo taken on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, books written by inmates and published while serving jail time are placed on a table at the National Library in Bucharest, Romania. Romania’s crackdown on corruption and fraud in recent years has created a sudden and unexpected literary boom, as prisoners publish hundreds of non-fiction books on subjects as varied as soccer, real estate, God and gemstones. AP Photo

BUCHAREST, Romania—Romania’s crackdown on corruption and fraud in recent years has created a sudden and unexpected literary boom, as prisoners publish hundreds of non-fiction books on subjects as varied as soccer, real estate, God and gemstones.

It’s quite a feat for inmates with no access to books or the Internet, often without tables in their cells. Reports that one book, of 212 pages, was written in seven hours, has only increased suspicions that the improbable treatises are often ghost-written or plagiarized.

Under Romanian law, prisoners can have their sentences reduced by 30 days for every “scientific work” they publish, subject to a judge’s decision on whether the book merits it. Prisoners pay publishing houses to print their works — though they won’t be found in any bookshop.

In this photo taken on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, a page from Gheorghe Becali's fourth book "Becali and Steaua. Bucharest" is presented to journalists at the National Library in Bucharest, Romania. Romania’s crackdown on corruption and fraud in recent years has created a sudden and unexpected literary boom, as prisoners publish hundreds of non-fiction books on subjects as varied as soccer, real estate, God and gemstones. AP Photo