(VitalNews.org) – Book bans have become a major story in the United States as many conservatives are pushing for certain books to be taken off the shelves in schools, but it’s now moved to a new location – prisons. The impact of these bans have been felt throughout America’s prison population, according to activists.
Books are a way for prisoners to connect with the outside world, but they are usually censored in United States prisons. Activists are pushing for carceral tablets to have access to full public library catalogs.
Steve Wilson, who is incarcerated in Pennsylvania, said, “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?’”
“We need people out there to know that, and we need them to join us in our fight against censorship.”
One initiative that’s tried to raise awareness about book censorship in the United States is
Prison Banned Books Week. Although book bans in schools and public libraries are reported often, there is less known about the censorship issues in prisons.
A Marshall Project Report said that in 2022, about half the states reported that they had book policies and listed off banned publications, which included over fifty thousand books.
There has also been found to be inconsistencies across state prisons in regards to the books that are banned. For example, in Florida more than twenty thousand titles are banned, but in Rhode Island under seventy titles are banned.
The founder of Prison Banned Books Week, Moira Marquis, said, “There’s no good reason to limit reading for anyone – let alone incarcerated people.”
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