Reddit reviews The American Sign Language Phrase Book
We found 2 Reddit comments about The American Sign Language Phrase Book. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
Lou Fant's "The American Sign Language Phrase book" is great. It's chunked by topic and covers grammar/syntax as well. (bonus - it is cheaper and has better reviews than the other suggestions here)
Amazon Link here
This is a difficult thing to recommend, given the restrictions your friend is up against. Most of the books I want to recommend depend on a supplemental DVD, which I understand is out of the question. A couple more that I know of are spiral-bound, which I'm assuming would also be disallowed in a prison setting.
The American Sign Language Phrase Book is really the best one that I can personally think of that doesn't rely on additional material and would probably be allowed.