Book 'em: New law criminalizes overdue library books

AP reported today on a new crime in Texas that I hadn't noticed during last spring's legislative session:

Call it throwing the book at the bookworms.

A Texas man who was arrested for failing to return an overdue library book ignited an online flurry of snarky comments and headlines about the Lone Star State extending its tough-on-crime bravado to books. But such cases aren't unheard of, and many communities faced with shrinking budgets and rising costs have ordinances calling for fines or even arrest warrants when library property isn't returned.

In Texas alone, the issue has cost libraries an estimated $18 million.

Jory Enck learned that the hard way. He was arrested for not returning a GED study guide that he checked out three years ago in the Central Texas community of Copperas Cove. Enck declined comment to The Associated Press, but he told the Killeen Daily Herald that he wouldn't set foot in a library again: "I think I will probably just purchase a book from Amazon."

A Texas state law took effect in September that defines the failure to return library books as theft. The law, which doesn't trump stricter community ordinances, mandates up to a $100 fine per offense.

Other states also call for fines or even arrest warrants in such cases, including Iowa — where an overdue-book offender was jailed for a week — Vermont and Maine.

Of course, the  US Supreme Court ruled in Atwater v. City of Lago Vista that police can make arrests for fine only offenses, so the new statute won't prevent people for going to jail over library fines. But Grits in the past has suggested a rule which IMO should still apply: Nobody making arrests for overdue library books gets to complain about jail overcrowding.