tens of thousands books Such behavior is being banned or restricted in U.S. prisons, according to a new PEN America report. The list includes everything from self-help books to Elmore Leonard novels.
“The common idea behind the censorship we see is that certain ideas and information are a threat,” said report co-author Moira Marquis, a literary and senior manager of prison and justice writing at free speech organization PEN. .
Starting on Wednesday Prison Book Banned Week“Reading Behind Bars” draws on public records requests, PEN International phone calls to prison mailrooms, dozens of accounts from prisoners, and PEN International’s efforts to distribute its prison writing guide, “Making Our Sentences: Crafting A Writer’s Prison Life,” which was released last year.
Marquez said the most common official reasons for bans are security and pornographic content, terms that apply to a very broad range of games. Michigan’s “restricted” list includes Leonard’s thriller “Cuba Libre,” set during the Spanish-American War in 1898, and Frederick Forsyth’s “The Day of the Jackal,” about a 1960s The story of a professional assassin’s attempt on the life of French President Charles de Gaulle. Both novels have been called “threats to institutional order/security.”
“One of the books (‘The Day of the Jackal’) deals with planning to assassinate a political leader/methods of engaging in such activities, and the second book (‘Cuba Libre’) deals with individuals engaged in various criminal activities,” Michigan A spokesman for the Department of Corrections told The Associated Press in an email. “As part of the updated restricted publication process, a new Literary Review Committee has been established to review items previously on the restricted publication list to determine whether they should be retained or removed.”
Comic Memoirs, Drawing Manuals, Self-Help Bestsellers
Amy Schumer’s memoir “The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo” has been flagged by Florida officials as containing sexually explicit content and “threaten[ing]the safety, order, or safety of the correctional system.” poses a threat to the safety of the recovery target or any person.”
Other books on the banned list: Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” the compilation “Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories from Prison,” Barrington Barber’s “Anyone Can Draw: Create Sensations in Simple Steps” “Art of Art” and Robert Greene’s autobiography helped sell the best-selling “The 48 Laws of Power.”
“This is a form of control. It is the ultimate form of manipulative power,” Green said in a statement released by PEN.
In its report, PEN International found similarities between the frequency with which books are banned in prisons and those banned in schools and libraries. PEN estimate In the 2022-23 school year, more than 40% of library bans occurred in Florida school districts. At the same time, the organization found that as of the beginning of this year, Florida’s prisons had more than 22,000 banned books, the most among any state, with some of the books dating back to the 1990s. Texas is another place where libraries ban books frequently, with more than 10,000 books banned in prisons, second only to Florida.
According to Reading Between the Bars, banning incidents are likely much higher than PEN estimates because record-keeping in many prisons is spotty or non-existent. Kentucky and New Mexico are among more than 20 states that do not keep centralized records.
“Prison book programs are primarily an attempt to raise local awareness when prisons impose new censorship restrictions on the communities they serve,” the report said. “But these programs are largely run by volunteers and are difficult to meet even without censorship.” There is a demand for books. As a result, there have been few national efforts to analyze prison review trends.”
Marquis said PEN would divide bans into two categories: content-specific bans, where a book is banned because of what it says or is alleged to say, and content-neutral, where a book is banned because it was not sent through an acceptable channel. restricted. In Maine, Michigan and other states, inmates can only purchase books through select vendors, whether it’s Amazon.com, a local bookstore or an approved publisher. In Idaho, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are not among nine approved sellers, including Books in a Million and the Women’s Prison Book Project.
Content-neutral restrictions may also apply to packaging (Marquis said some federal facilities only allow white packaging), as well as to free or used literature, “because the intended recipient does not have access to a warden or similar administrator for each Permissions for a specific title “were mailed to them before the documents arrived,” Marquis said.
An Idaho Department of Corrections spokesman told The Associated Press in an email that the packaging restrictions were necessary due to “an increase in the volume of drug-soaked mail being sent to our residents.” He added that prisoners can get books and journals free of charge from authorized vendors and publishers.
“We believe our guidance is a reasonable response to a growing problem that puts the health and safety of people living and working in Idaho correctional facilities at risk,” he said.
Next up is the “Reading Bar Room” A study released in late 2022 The nonprofit Marshall Project found about 50,000 banned prison titles based on lists provided by 25 states. 2019, PEN report examined different levels of prison bans—ranging from not allowing individuals to obtain specific books to statewide restrictions—and determined that these restrictions were both broad and arbitrary.
“Book restrictions within the U.S. prison system represent the largest book-banning policy in the United States, with more than 2 million Americans incarcerated,” the 2019 study reads in part. “The reality of book bans in U.S. prisons is systemic and comprehensive. State and federal prison authorities censor content with little oversight or public scrutiny. Often, the final decision-maker regarding a person’s right to read is in the prison mailroom.”
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