Freedom Behind Bars: Reading and Book Banning in US Prisons

Last year, I and a group of others started a Reader's Advisory for books banned within the prison system of the United States. Information on finding these books became the main purpose of our goals during that project.

Let me lay the groundwork for what this is. The US Prison System allows its inmates to request for books to come in. Some of them are quite expected - there are some books which can seem logical, like a handgun manual or similar. However, there comes many more books which do not make sense. Like Fifty Shades of Gray or the dictionary of Egyptian Hieroglyphics. These books are perfectly accessible to those outside of prison, and easily, without there being a need to censor them or presume they will be used as a threat to the location that the people are housed.

Often, there is a sense of prudishness of prison censorship. Sexually Explicit material are sometimes censored at random, even when there is nothing inherently wrong with this kind of material. User manuals are forbidden to people because they MIGHT construct something from the knowledge within the book, rather than assuming that someone might want to gain further information.

One cited incident within the prison system was a student, imprisoned, was not allowed their college books, because science books could potentially be used to create bombs. Which, considering the nature of exploding things, could just as easily be sourced from a cookbook.

But maybe that is also why the prison system has also censored so many cookbooks, including those writing by prisoners, for prisons, because they offer cheap, easy meals that will offer understanding from peers. Biographies from prior prisoners are also often censored, for various reasons. And a surprising number of self-help books.

During the construction of our Reader's Advisor, myself and our group considered many themes. Not only did we have the option to consider prison bannings, but we wanted to specifically narrow down the unusual, often seemingly random choices of these places.

Books about movies and comic books were often also banned. Nearly all of Neil Gaiman's the Sandman, for example, were banned if you take into account Arizona, California, and Florida prisons. The Marvel Coloring Book for Kids was also banned from Florida prisons, as well as 'How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way.' Often, drawing books as a whole were banned, which led my group to their next puzzling exploration. It often didn't even make sense when nudity was considered, as some drawing books seemed to not feature such things at all (and one can certainly argue that drawing nude figures is hardly a crime). A surprisingly large number of Wicca related books were also banned. Seemingly Christian books were fine (only a handful were found), but alt forms of worship were not.

Our group eventually alighted on the banning of many LGBTQ+ topics in the prison system. Often simple mentions of The Gays would result in certain states banning the book completely. Trangender topics in books were even more common to see on the lists. The sheer number and variety were wide, often without many reasons for the book to be considered for banning beyond that.

Book banning in prisons do not get the attention they deserve. School bans get there moment of spotlight on the 5 o'clock news, but it is rare to see prisons get their moment in the spotlight, particularly for the criticism they deserve.

The excessive use of censorship spaces for prisons has been looked into by the Marshall Project, which is where a majority of this information was sourced from. I would highly recommend checking them out, as they have a great breakdown of books by State and a database that can be searched.