Book Bans Proliferate in US Prisons

In prisons across the country, officials have unilaterally banned hundreds of books, but now, officials in Connecticut have banned thousands of new titles — including educational books about drawing and computers, hip hop culture books, “A Description of Scientology,” George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series, and multiple art, music and culture magazines, according to the Providence Journal.

Among these new additions, existing banned materials include editions of Abolitionist Magazine, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy,” and several volumes of the newsletter published by the Coalition for Prisoners’ Rights. 

Only Connecticut and New Hampshire maintain lists of the materials that have been banned, USA TODAY Network record requests show. Now, Connecticut’s list of 2,000-plus banned books is the most extensive in all of New England.

Civil rights groups and advocacy organizations have challenged prison book bans across the country, arguing they deny incarcerated people First Amendment rights.

According to NPR, a 2020 report from PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free expression, found that book censorship in U.S. prisons represents “the largest book ban policy in the United States,” — and while censorship guidelines vary in different prison systems, the restrictions “are often arbitrary, overbroad, opaque, [and] subject to little meaningful review.”

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) regulations state that publications can only be rejected if they are found to be “detrimental to the security, good order, or discipline of the institution or if it might facilitate criminal activity,” according to the National Institute of Corrections. 

“Each prison governor has the discretion to ban access to any reading material if he or she considers that the content presents a threat to good order or discipline, or that possession of the material is likely to have an adverse effect on the prisoner’s physical or mental condition,” the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Corrections wrote in February on a page on its website titled “Censorship and Banned Book Lists in Correctional Facilities,” according to the Providence Journal.

Why Fear Books? 

Across New England states, each governing body has different guidelines for which print, audio and video materials are allowed inside their correctional facilities. 

Typically, the guidelines prohibit materials that are explicit, teach ways to create weapons, alcohol, drugs, or coded messages. To that end, advocates argue that denying incarcerated people access to materials, it goes against their first amendment rights. 

“That material contains unpopular views or even what may be considered repugnant content does not justify its censorship,” The American Liberty Association wrote while arguing against banning books in prison. “When free people, through radical procedure, segregate some of their own,they incur the responsibility to provide humane treatment and essential rights.”

The quote continues, as noted by the Providence Journal, “The right to choose what to read is deeply important, and the suppression of ideas is fatal to a democratic society.” 

In Connecticut, prisons only allow books and magazines to be sent to people in custody if they’re “in new condition and packaged and shipped by a bookstore, club, or publisher, according to the state’s website.

In New Hampshire, a list of 130 unique titles that are banned has been made public by the Human Rights Defense Center. The list mainly includes books where a “security threat” is identified in the written context, and books where there’s inappropriate sexual nature detailed that wouldn’t be appropriate for sex offenders in custody.

The Massachusetts Department of Corrections has no list of prohibited books, according to the Providence Journal.

“It’s so important for people who are in prison to be able to have access to materials that give them hope and a reason to want to be part of society again, to want to engage, to see the future,” says Rebecca Ginsburg of the Education Justice Project, as quoted by NPR.

Additional Reading: The Rise and Fall of Prison Education