October 17th 2019

By Bill Berkowitz 

Another Banned Books Week, an awareness campaign sponsored by the American Library Association, National Coalition Against Censorship and other groups, has come and gone, and the list of the books most challenged in 2018 is, as has been usual over the past several years, swollen with books about the LGBTQ community (see below for the list of “The Top 11 Challenged Books of 2018”). While books are being challenged in libraries and schools, far and away the leading book banners are officials at prisons across the country where -- without much in the way of official guidelines – tens of thousands of titles are banned from the incarcerated. 

According to a  September 2019, PEN America report titled Literature Locked Up: How Prison Book Restriction Policies Constitute the Nation’s Largest Book Ban, Prisons in Texas have banned books by Pulitzer Prize winners Alice Walker, Robert Penn Warren, and John Updike; National Book Award winners Joyce Carol Oates and Annie Proulx; Nobel Prize winners Pablo Neruda and Andre Gide; and even George Orwell and former Senator Bob Dole. A book on biology was banned from a prison in Ohio, with officials labeling anatomical drawings as “nudity.” “In Tennessee, officials refused to allow the literary non-profit Books trough Bars to send a book about the Holocaust to an incarcerated person, citing as justification the fact the book included a photo of the nude bodies of victims,” the report pointed out. 

Books on technology and that teach programming have been banned in Oregon, Ohio, and Michigan prisons. Chokehold: Policing Black Men, a book that examines the effect of the criminal justice system on black men, written  

by Georgetown law professor and former federal prosecutor Paul Butler, is reportedly banned from Arizona prisons. According to CNN, “Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, faced bans in North Carolina and New Jersey prisons last year. But prison officials in those states reversed course after the ACLU sent them letters.”

In late August, GQ’s Luke Darby reported that “a prison in Danville, Illinois, officials have ended a prisoner education program and purged more than 200 books from the program's library. Their explanation: too many of the books had ‘racial’ content and the program put too much emphasis on things like ‘diversity and inclusion.’"

“The system of restrictions on book access in our prisons is the largest book ban in the United States,” said James Tager, PEN America’s deputy director of free expression policy and research and author of the report.

“With over two million Americans incarcerated, the book-restriction regulations within the United States carceral system represent the largest book ban policy in the United States,” the report stated.

Rules surrounding books that prisoners are not allowed to read are often “vague,” and  “arbitrary,” “with authorities striking titles and authors believed to be detrimental to ‘rehabilitation’ or somehow supportive of criminal behavior.”

According to the PEN report, “Literature on civil rights and landmark works rightly critical of the American incarceration system—titles like e New Jim Crow and Race Matters—are often subject to bans.”  While the specific rules vary from state to state, prison officials generally have broad latitude to ban books based on their content, including the prerogative to develop their own rationales for why a book should be blocked. They usually do so on one of several grounds:

• Sexual content. nudity, or obscenity

• Depictions of violence or language perceived to encourage it

• Depictions of criminal activity or language perceived to encourage it

• Depictions of escape or language perceived to encourage it

• Encouragement of “group disruption” or anti-authority attitudes or actions

• Racial animus or language perceived to en-courage hatred 

“While all these categories may encompass areas of legitimate concern, they can be—and in practice often are—construed so broadly that they essentially serve as convenient justifications for arbitrary bans,” the PEN report states.  “Further, prison officials are allowed to block books even outside these categories so long as the text is ‘detrimental to the security, good order, rehabilitation, or discipline of the institution.’”

The report noted that censorship of books to prisoners happens “at multiple levels.” Individuals in prison mailrooms and libraries “are empowered to decide whether a book will be allowed to reach its intended recipient, or not.” Prisons can create their own rules for banning books. “As a result, certain books may be allowed in one prison and banned in another.”

Literature Locked Up pointed out that “The third type of censorship occurs at the state-wide level (or in the case of the federal Bureau of Prisons, the federal level). State departments of correction may have a list of banned books, which often include thousands of banned titles. Such lists often codify and formalize the practices of prison mailrooms towards certain books, turning institution-wide norms into an automatic state-wide ban.”

A November 2017 study by The Dallas Morning News found that the state of Texas has a list of between 10-to-15,000 books that are banned. “The statewide list reportedly includes such books as Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, Alice Walker’s e Color Purple, and books on the Civil Rights Movement,” Literature Locked Up stated. Florida has a list of 20,000 books that are banned. 

There are a number of groups, including Books To Prisoners that attempt to provide books to prisoners, but are often thwarted by arbitrary regulation. The PEN report, which falls short of calling for the elimination of all restrictions, is advocating “more explicit, consistent and transparent policies that are regularly updated,” The New York Times reported. The report is also calling for hearings in Congress on book restrictions.

“As a society, the U.S. must articulate and defend the right to read in prison,” the report said. “Otherwise the nation’s largest book banning policy will remain unchallenged.”

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Most Challenged Books in 2018

George by Alex Gino
; Reasons: banned, challenged, and relocated because it was believed to encourage children to clear browser history and change their bodies using hormones, and for mentioning “dirty magazines,” describing male anatomy, “creating confusion,” and including a transgender character

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illustrated by EG Keller
; Reasons: banned and challenged for including LGBTQIA+ content, and for political and religious viewpoints

Captain Underpants series written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey;
 Reasons: series was challenged because it was perceived as encouraging disruptive behavior, while Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot was challenged for including a same-sex couple

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas; 
Reasons: banned and challenged because it was deemed “anti-cop,” and for profanity, drug use, and sexual references

Drama written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier; 
Reasons: banned and challenged for including LGBTQIA+ characters and themes

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
; Reasons: banned, challenged, and restricted for addressing teen suicide

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki; 
Reasons: banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and certain illustrations

Skippyjon Jones series written and illustrated by Judy Schachner; 
Reason: challenged for depicting stereotypes of Mexican culture

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: banned and challenged for sexual references, profanity, violence, gambling, and underage drinking, and for its religious viewpoint

This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman, illustrated by Kristyna Litten; 
Reason: challenged and burned for including LGBTQIA+ content

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan; 
Reason: challenged and burned for including LGBTQIA+ content