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In the US state of Florida alone, almost 23,000 books are on the index in prisons.
This is the result of a report from a literary association.
Books entertain, inspire and teach us new knowledge.
It is precisely these properties that apparently make them so dangerous that numerous works are banned in US prisons.
A report by the literary association
PEN America
shows that tens of thousands of books are affected by censorship.
According to this, prisons are “the largest censors in the United States.” Individual prison systems “censor more books than all schools and libraries combined.”
The analysis was created on the basis of files viewed, reports from prisoners and interviews with employees of the prison mailroom.
The selected titles that are on the black list are curious: the selection often seems arbitrary.
Books banned in US prisons
Tens of thousands of books are not allowed to be read in US prisons.
© IMAGO
According to the report “Reading between the Bars,” a cookbook is the most banned book in U.S. prisons.
This is the title “Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories from Behind Bars” by Clifton Collins Jr. and Gustavo Alvarez.
The book describes how to prepare various recipes in one cell.
In second place is the bestseller “Power: The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene.
Sun Tzu's “The Art of War” is also very often banned.
Also on the list is actress Amy Schumer's memoir The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo.
Authorities in Florida classified the autobiography as a “security threat” because of its sexual content.
Without further justification, the drawing book “Anyone Can Draw: Create Sensational Artwork in Easy Steps” ended up on the index in Florida.
An old manual on how to tie knots is also explicitly withheld from the prisoners.
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Security concerns and sexual content cause censorship
But what is actually behind the far-reaching book ban?
“The common concept underlying censorship is that certain ideas and information pose a threat,” The
Guardian
newspaper quoted Moira Marquis, the report's lead author and senior manager in PEN's prison and justice department, as saying.
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The most common reason for banning books is safety concerns and sexual content.
The prisons are therefore of the opinion that prisoners could come up with dangerous “ideas” through the books.
In Michigan, for example, a Spanish textbook was deemed a threat because inmates could learn a language that staff did not understand.
Issues of Cosmopolitan and Rolling Stone magazines were also banned, as were books about menopause and human birth.
All of these publications were classified as “sexually explicit”.
It seems a little more obvious to put books on the index that deal with sexual violence.
This includes, for example, the work “Men Unlearning Rape,” which is banned in Connecticut correctional facilities.
These states are particularly strict when it comes to censorship
A particularly large number of works are banned in the US states of Florida and Texas.
PEN estimates that there are nearly 23,000 books on the index in Florida and over 10,000 in Texas.
These two states also ban most books in public institutions such as libraries outside of prisons.
Other states, on the other hand, do not keep a central register of banned books at all.
Instead, it is decided at the post offices what is allowed to reach the prisoners and what is not.
The literature association criticizes that this makes the selection all the more arbitrary.
Best example: In Virginia, prisoners are not allowed to read the novels from the fantasy series “Game of Thrones”.
The film adaptation, however, is not censored: all episodes of the HBO series can be seen uncut on the prison television.
PEN association strongly criticizes censorship
The double standards and vague criteria are heavily criticized by PEN America.
Such bans would reinforce the idea that reading is inherently dangerous.
“We witness how much time, effort and money is spent trying to stop people from reading.
This censorship must stop,” demands the organization.
Moira Marquis, speaking to the news website
Axios
, states: “Censorship in prison dwarfs any other kind of censorship in our culture.
She is really massive.
It targets not just specific content or titles, but the medium of the written word itself.”