Banned for What?! The Prison Libraries Edition

Prison Banned Books Week is upon us, a time when we highlight some of the titles banned from state and federal prisons. According to the official campaign website, this annual effort “shines a light on this widespread censorship and advocates for the rights of incarcerated and detained people to access literature and express themselves freely.” In partnership with organizations that champion free expression, the campaign underscores a powerful message: Censorship has no place in a democracy.

1. Dungeons & Dragons by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson

Dungeons & Dragons is a role-playing game banned from federal prisons because officials believe it presents a security threat and encourages gang behavior. Other role-playing games are also banned for the same reasons, even though there hasn’t been a single incident where D&D has led to gang behavior in the past. D&D is a fantasy cooperative tabletop game where players embark on imaginary adventures together while taking on new identities as fictional characters.

2. 101 Things to Do with Mac and Cheese by Toni Patrick

101 Things to Do with Mac and Cheese is banned from New Jersey state prisons. Sometimes, recipe books can describe how to make prohibited substances, but in this case, this book is banned because it has a metal spiral binding.

3. 1001 Photographs You Must See in Your Lifetime by Paul Lowe

1001 Photographs You Must See in Your Lifetime is banned from Virginia state prisons. The Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) claims that this book emphasizes “depictions or promotions of violence, disorder, insurrection, terrorist, or criminal activity.” It spans subjects including documentary and photojournalism and traces photography’s history across different genres. There are several photographs that show weapons, violence, graphic imagery, and other content deemed problematic by VDOC.

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4. Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon

Slavery by Another Name is both a book and a documentary that exposes how the forced labor of African Americans continued in the American South from the end of the Civil War until the 1940s. Blackmon analyzes how the use of debt and incarceration effectively reenslaved millions of Black men in the Deep South after emancipation. This book was banned in 2010 by Alabama’s Department of Corrections (DOC) because officials believed it posed a security threat.

5. Concise Atlas of the World (5th ed.) by National Geographic

The Concise Atlas of the World is restricted in California because it contains maps depicting areas within ten miles of a correctional facility. This 200-page visual reference book for geography includes approximately 250 graphics, maps, and illustrations. 

6. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is banned from Florida prisons. The state cited concerns over “racial overtures” that could “provoke confrontation between racial groups.” New Jersey and Southern State Correctional Facility similarly banned this book, but their reasons for doing so remain unknown. This book closely examines incarceration in the United States, claiming that the US criminal justice system functions as a modern-day system of racial control.

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7. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones is banned from the New Hampshire Department of Corrections, Kansas’s Lansing Correctional Facility, and the Michigan Department of Corrections. These institutions cite the novel as being “sexually explicit and offensive.” The story follows the ghost of a young girl who is abducted, sexually assaulted, and killed in an underground bunker as she watches her friends and family cope with her disappearance.

8. Exotic Chickens: Coloring for Everyone by Racehorse Publishing

Exotic Chickens: Coloring for Everyone is a coloring book that was banned from Florida prisons. The specific reason for this ban is not cited, but Florida’s rules allow publications to be rejected if officials determine the material is detrimental to the “security, order or disciplinary or rehabilitative interests” of the prison system or might facilitate criminal activity.

9. The Klingon Dictionary by Marc Okrand

The Klingon Dictionary is also banned in Florida prisons, though the specific reason is not cited publicly. However, Florida officials have stated that foreign-language dictionaries can be prohibited because they provide a method of communication that security staff cannot understand.

10. Stock Investing for Dummies by Paul Mladjenovic 

Stock Investing for Dummies was banned in Michigan, as are other texts that provide basic computer instruction.

Sign the petition to fight book bans!

Check out The Marshall Project’s prison book ban database to see which books are banned in your state’s prisons.

Last year, EveryLibrary published an article exploring how prison libraries help provide second chances for incarcerated individuals. The piece highlights how facility libraries enhance literacy and job readiness, strengthen family connection through literacy programs, and empower individuals by supporting GED mastery, college coursework, and financial literacy.

There are several grassroots organizations that work directly to support incarcerated readers:

• Prisoner’s Literature Project. An all-volunteer nonprofit organization that sends free books to incarcerated people throughout the United States

• Prison Books Project. A New York-based group that partners with independent bookstores in the Hudson Valley to fulfill book requests for incarcerated people statewide.

• Freedom Reads. An organization founded by formerly incarcerated author Reginald Dwayne Betts that builds housing-unit libraries inside prisons.

• Rosebuds Reading Collective. A group organizing book clubs, writing workshops, author visits, and book distribution programs for incarcerated women at Rikers Island in New York City.

Prisons remain among the largest reading censors in the country, and the Prison Libraries Act aims to remove some of the literary barriers imposed on justice-impacted individuals. If you believe those who are incarcerated share the same right to read as you do, sign the petition in support of the Prison Libraries Act.

Visit www.everylibrary.org to learn more about our work on behalf of libraries. 

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