Washington state’s Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and State Librarian Sara Jones, in a recent guest commentary to the Herald Net, inform us that the Washington State Library is now providing physical library cards to inmates as they prepare for release (“State, local libraries rebuilding lives after prison,” The Herald, May 27). As they point out in their commentary, this will ”provide access to the internet, health and social services and job-search and skills training.”

It does even more: Public libraries can help develop a pleasure reading habit. I am a retired professor and still active in research. My studies have shown that people who read more for pleasure, books they select themselves write better, spell better, have larger vocabularies, and, of course, read better; know more about a wide variety of topics, including history, science and technology; and have a deeper understanding of others.

Public radio host Terry Gross put it this way: When you read fiction, “you’re learning to be somebody else, learning to see the world through their eyes.”

The Washington State Library card plan benefits everyone. I hope other states consider doing this.

Stephen Krashen

Santa Monica, Calif.