Oct. 25 (UPI) — A new report from PEN America Wednesday found that prisons censor “staggering numbers” of books and other reading materials for incarcerated people not just for content but for many “capricious reasons.”
The report, titled “Reading Between The Bars: An In-Depth Look At Prison Censorship,” is based on freedom of information requests to prison systems in every state and to the federal Bureau of Prisons.
“The extent of prison book banning is alarming and an attack on the written word itself,” said Moira Marquis, senior manager of PEN America’s Freewrite Project and lead author of the report in a statement. “Censorship should not be a knee-jerk tactic by authorities to address other prison concerns, such as spurious claims that books are a conduit for drugs. Yet we are witnessing vast amounts of time, effort and money expended in order to stop people from reading. This censorship must end.”
PEN America said the report reveals extensive prison censorship of content, including medical and art books, dictionaries and other reference materials.
The reason offered most frequently for censoring was “sexually explicit” content, which resulted in denial of popular magazines, drawing books, medical books and dictionaries, according to PEN America.
Florida prisons banned the most books, with 22,825 titles banned. Texas was next highest with 10,265 banned titles.
Prison Ramen, a cookbook that offers ramen recipes people can make in prison cells is the most banned book in U.S. prisons. The book includes stories from people who were once incarcerated about how the recipes were created or describing a meaningful time the meal was eaten.
Contributors to Prison Ramen include Danny Trejo, Slash, Shia LaBeouf, and Clarence J. Brown III, an actor featured in The Shawshank Redemption.
PEN America said literature that acknowledges the “realities of racial violence” are disproportionately targeted for censorship in prisons. Since 2021 that includes content about critical race theory.
The report found Kansas prisons ban James Baldwin‘s I Am Not Your Negro for “racism/inciting.”
Michigan banned Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks — which the report said is widely considered a leading psychological examination of the damages caused by racism and colonial hierarchies — because the prisons believe it “advocates for racial supremacy.”
In addition to banning titles, PEN America’s report found prisons are increasingly only allowing books to be sent from prison-approved vendors.
The report said books are often banned by prison mailroom staff in “capriciously enacted” bans, even though those staff positions require no specific knowledge of literature.
According to PEN America’s report, the most pervasive form of censorship bans reading material related to prison itself.
The report found a widespread lack of record-keeping of literature bans and said that, “content-neutral” banning is increasing where books are banned for many reasons other than content.
It also noted inconsistencies including the Game of Thrones novels being banned in Virginia prisons while unedited HBO Game Of Thrones episodes are allowed.
Robert Greene, a best-selling author whose books are the most banned in 19 state prison systems, said in a statement, “It’s a form of control. It’s the ultimate form of power of manipulation. So the hypocrisy of saying, ‘this is a book that’s dangerous for you…’ whereas they’re [prisons] the ones that are completely controlling the dynamic and giving you access to only certain amounts of information is very frightening. That’s how totalitarian systems operate.”
PEN America is calling for an end to censorship in prisons and urges prison systems to expand access to literature for all incarcerated people.
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