What do you give prisoners to read?

I was alerted to and asked to comment on an article which has now appeared in today's paper.
It concerns a prisoner doing a 32 year stretch for murder. He isn't due for release until 2028 - when he will be deported. He spends most of his time in solitary confinement and has a range of other restrictions placed on him. Yes, his crimes were horrific. 
If the reporting is correct he has been behaving himself in prison. There is no suggestion of more violence, no drugs, no attempt to escape.
He has spent his long periods in solitary reading. What little money he has at his disposal has been spent on magazines about computing,  wooden boat building, and motorcycles. He has done sudoku and crosswords.
Obviously he is not one of the many, many prisoners who have low levels of literacy.
Now the system is changing and a list of "approved" magazines has come out. I saw the list. I can see that most of them would appeal to people with a limited capacity to read. They are full of pictures. They are not what this man wants to read. They won't challenge him in any way. 
And they won't prepare him for life on the outside. If he does get released in 2028 he is going to return to a very different world. What is more he will be deported to another country and, even though the language is the same, he will not have any support network there. 
The prison authorities seem unsympathetic. Perhaps there is a good reason for that. I find it hard to believe though that there is some good reason to deny someone reading matter of that nature. It seems to me it is the very sort of reading matter  which should be encouraged if someone shows an interest in it.  It seems to me that if someone is busy building a wooden boat  he isn't going to be nearly as interested in potentially criminal activities of any sort.
I know there is an immense need for literacy skills to be taught in prison and an equally great need for reading matter which is suited to the literacy levels and interests of those who are there. To do anything to prevent those who can read well from continuing to do so seems wrong. Of course what is being read will need to be checked but a glance would tell you that boat building is not bomb building.
People who create things are less likely to destroy things.  Surely that is to be encouraged?