As of: January 23, 2024, 1:00 p.m
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Those in prison often long for distraction.
Books are then a welcome escape from reality.
The most popular is a crime novel by Sebastian Fitzek.
Days can be long in prison.
If you're not free, you can't sit on your cell phone or PC for hours to pass the time.
However, reading books is allowed in prison.
Many prisoners are happy to accept this distraction.
The Dortmund correctional facility reveals which works the inmates like to read most.
At the top of the list is a crime novel by Sebastian Fitzek.
The most popular books behind bars: What prisoners in Germany read
As we all know, tastes are different and this also applies to the inmates in a correctional facility.
For
Zeit Online,
Bekir Erçiçek, integration officer and librarian at the Dortmund prison, has compiled a list of the works that the prisoners there read the most in 2022.
Inmates also enjoy a selection of books.
The most popular thing in the Dortmund JVA is a Fitzek crime novel.
© Imago
The top 10 is headed by “Amokspiel” by Sebastian Fitzek, which was rented a total of 86 times by the 404 prisoners.
This is followed by “The Message of the Koran: Translation and Commentary” (65 times), “Bob Marley: Catch a Fire” (63 times), “Funny Paperback No. 110 – Donald is my type!” (55 times), “Me am the night” (49 times), “We are the night” (46 times), another Fitzek crime thriller “The Nightwalker” (46 times), “Illuminati” (40 times), “Asterix and his friends: Homage to Albert Uderzo” (40 times) and “Donald Duck” as
picture
comic library volume 2 (40 times).
Here you will find five of the 25 most popular books of all time.
The correctional officer describes the fact that crime novels are on this list as a “boy thing.”
He attributes the comics and children's/young adult books, which also include numerous Asterix books and "Tintin", which are also on the list, to a feeling of nostalgia.
According to Erçiçek, the library was visited at least once by 75 percent of all prisoners.
By the way: In neighboring Switzerland, things look completely different.
According to
Zueritoday.ch,
the most borrowed book in the JVA Pöschwies, the largest prison in Switzerland, was the book “Fotres” by Frank Urbaniok about risk management for criminals.
Law books, dictionaries and language books are also in the top 10.
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Books against crime: Juvenile detention uses books as an educational measure
Even in the Berlin-Brandenburg youth detention center, young people's literature is mainly borrowed because, as the name suggests, there are young people here.
The facility is more of an educational measure, as group supervisor and librarian Ulf-André Thur explains.
With the books on site he wants to get young people back on the right path and broaden their horizons.
“Everyone is worth fighting for,” he explains
to
Zeit.de.
In order to cover all interests and be inclusive, the library also offers works in different languages.
Every now and then, authors or even celebrities come by for readings to meet the young people.
Banned Works: In the USA, not all books go to prison
In the USA, things are different in prison.
In many places here there are neither books in different languages nor a free selection.
According to the literary association Pen America, which advocates freedom of expression and human rights in literature, there is a lot of censorship in the United States.
For prison inmates, this means that numerous works are banned.
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The US authorities usually cite concerns about “sexual content” or “safety” as justification, as Pen America did in the report “Reading Between the Bars”. means, explained.
There are lists for various countries of books that are not allowed in US prisons.
Most of the time, however, decisions are made arbitrarily in the institution's mail rooms as to whether a book reaches an inmate or not, and this can sometimes also apply to a coloring book or cookery book.
Most books are banned in Florida, namely almost 23,000 works.
This also includes “Alchemy: The Secret Art” and “The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo,” the memoirs of comedian and actress Amy Schumer.
In Texas, out of a total of 10,000 rejected titles, most books are banned because of sexual content.
Numerous books about foreign languages are also banned because there is a fear that inmates could communicate in languages that the guards do not understand.
Here we have put together the twenty most popular books on Amazon for you.