n recent years the issue of book bans has become a major story, often driven by socially conservative pressure groups, but nowhere has the impact of bans been felt more acutely than in the nation's enormous prison population, activists and campaigners say. Books can serve as vital connections to the outside world for incarcerated individuals, yet they are frequently censored in prisons. Campaigners are advocating for public library catalogs to be accessible on carceral tablets, the Guardian reports. “We are adults in these prisons, and we’re told that we can’t read this, we can’t read that, we can’t read this book, we can’t see that article, and we’re like, ‘For what reason?’” said Stevie Wilson, who is incarcerated in Pennsylvania. “We need people out there to know that, and we need them to join us in our fight against censorship.” Prison Banned Books Week is one of many initiatives in the past few years that have sought to raise awareness about the rise of literary censorship. While book bans in schools and public libraries are frequently reported on and widely acknowledged, relatively less is known about the extent to which literary censorship affects those imprisoned.
A Marshall Project report in 2022 found that about half of states said they had book policies and lists of banned publications containing over 50,000 titles. Other states don’t keep lists, meaning books can enter facilities only on a case-by-case basis, with inconsistent rules and little oversight. Policies vary widely. Florida bans more than 20,000 titles and Rhode Island prohibits just 68. Nebraska has a list for only one of its nine prisons, while Wyoming has different lists for each facility. Reasons vary from nudity to depictions of crime or violence to confusing bans that make little sense. Louisiana banned a 700-page book featuring the art of Leonardo da Vinci; Virginia bans World of Warcraft books and Texas banned a visual Spanish-English dictionary. “Reading is an unmitigated good and should not be restricted,” said Moira Marquis, the founder of Prison Banned Books Week and recent co-editor of Books Through Bars. “There’s no good reason to limit reading for anyone – let alone incarcerated people.” Wilson, who said he spends about six hours a day reading and writing, has frequently experienced censorship of reading materials. He described battling the department of corrections for three and a half years and engaging in long appeals processes over accessing certain titles, which often take months and are complex and time-consuming.
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