--- title: How Prison Book Bans Dwarf All Other Censorship description: PEN America’s new report, Reading Between the Bars, details the many ways prisons censor books. canonical: https://time.com/6329800/prison-book-bans-censorship-essay/ author: Moira Marquis article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-10-30T15:45:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:47.995Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Prison Book Bans Dwarf All Other Censorship og:description: PEN America’s new report, Reading Between the Bars, details the many ways prisons censor books. og:url: https://time.com/6329800/prison-book-bans-censorship-essay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf86c8d057b7d295a/698a41c7b3fce328d90caf3a/prison-libraries-bans.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1998 og:image:height: 1124 og:image:alt: prison-libraries-bans og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Prison Book Bans Dwarf All Other Censorship twitter:description: PEN America’s new report, Reading Between the Bars, details the many ways prisons censor books. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf86c8d057b7d295a/698a41c7b3fce328d90caf3a/prison-libraries-bans.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Prison Book Bans Dwarf All Other Censorship > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=f96e5dfe-beac-4087-bfb6-3aca8f16490c&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Justice Department is ‘Vigilantly Monitoring’ Actions That Infringe on Reproductive Rights, Says Attorney General [Watch (HLS stream): Justice Department is ‘Vigilantly Monitoring’ Actions That Infringe on Reproductive Rights, Says Attorney General](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Yqzgkkv0.m3u8) (3:48)  _Published 2023-12-04. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland says the Justice Department is vigilantly monitoring any laws or actions that infringe on federal protections of women's reproductive rights._ by [Moira Marquis](https://time.com/author/moira-marquis/) ## Moira Marquis Oct 30, 2023 3:45 PM UTC  Books in prison, concept of freedom of thought Books in prison, concept of freedom of thought Getty Images by [Moira Marquis](https://time.com/author/moira-marquis/) ## Moira Marquis Oct 30, 2023 3:45 PM UTC On July 22, 2022 [Texas prison authorities banned](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CMhnVLCXWvYRPxP3aCi9fgaOq4toWg0dLjQbBFc11h0/edit?usp=sharing) the second edition of Merriam-Webster’s Visual Dictionary, purportedly because there was an image of a weapon. This banned title was added to the 10,265 others that incarcerated people can’t read in Texas prisons. Unfortunately, dictionaries aren’t the only kind of books banned by Texas corrections officials and their counterparts throughout the United States. As PEN America’s new report [Reading Between the Bars](https://pen.org/report/reading-between-the-bars/) shows, books banned in prisons by some states dwarf all other book censorship in school and public libraries. Prison censorship is rising steeply, robbing those behind bars of reading materials on everything from exercise and health to art and even yoga, often for reasons that strain credulity. One prime example of this is Clifton Collins, Jr. and Gustavo “Goose” Alvarez’s cookbook [_Prison Ramen_](https://www.axios.com/2023/10/29/prisons-books-banned-report-censorship)_,_ which is the most banned book in America and banned in 19 state prison systems. This cookbook contains stories before each recipe about the way the recipe was developed or a particularly meaningful time it was prepared and eaten. These stories detail what life is like inside and literature that affirms the realities of incarceration are widely censored. Similarly, Robert Greene’s [_The 48 Laws of Power_](https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/utah-state-prison-bans-just-2-books-both-on-manipulation/) is the second most banned book in prisons. It’s a self-help book that explains power dynamics at play in interpersonal relationships and offers advice for how to manage them. The reason cited for the book's ban is, "manipulation techniques." Florida’s Department of Corrections has banned 11 of Greene's books. Another book widely banned in prisons is _The Art of War_, a text written in 5th century BCE by Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, commonly banned for security concerns. According to PEN America’s research, Florida ranks first in banning books in prisons, with 22,825 books banned (through this year). Kansas has censored 7,669 titles (up to 2021); Virginia 7,204 (up to 2022) and New York 5,356 (up to 2019). The ban on visual dictionaries is especially cruel, given they are designed to help people with basic or no literacy. Sixty percent of the U.S. prison population, roughly 720,000 people, are functionally illiterate. Learning to read from the dictionary is a time-honored tradition and dictionaries are the most sought books by incarcerated people. Malcolm X in his autobiography famously wrote about learning how to read from a dictionary while in prison. “I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary-to-study, to learn some words,” he explained. “I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying. Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened.” **_Read More:_**[_The Extreme New Tactic in the Crusade to Ban Books_](https://time.com/6277933/state-book-bans-publishers/) People who are functionally illiterate may be able to pronounce words as they read them on the page. They can sign their names to documents and they can read street signs or simple sentences. They can often read whole paragraphs but ask them what they just read and they won’t be able to tell you. Practice makes people better readers. The more your brain processes language, the faster you can process meaning, which is all the more reason for prisons to make books more widely and easily available. The censorship becomes even more unfathomable when we consider how this process occurs. Books are banned in prisons by mailroom staff, tasked with skimming them and deciding which ones can be allowed or not. Fifty-four percent of American adults [read below](https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BBFoundation%5FGainsFromEradicatingIlliteracy%5F9%5F8.pdf.) a sixth-grade level. Employment at correctional facilities requires a high school diploma which[ one third ](https://www.zippia.com/correction-officer-jobs/demographics/)of employees have while an additional quarter have an associate degree. This means that staff empowered to censor books may have only basic literacy themselves. ### More From TIME Prisons are also targeting the written word by increasingly limiting access to _any_ print literature. Missouri is the most recent state to begin censoring through a so-called [“approved vendors only” policy](http://“approved vendors only” policy) that requires incarcerated people to purchase literature from a small list of businesses. This literally means incarcerated people in Missouri cannot receive books as gifts from family, a church, or a nonprofit. Policies like this have proliferated in recent years and severely limit how incarcerated people can access literature. Michigan, for example, has [only five businesses](https://www.michigan.gov/corrections/services/family-information/books-publications-sending-books-and-or-publications-to-a-prisoner) where someone inside can purchase a book from. Prison authorities cite the introduction of drugs into prisons through paper mail as the rationale for these policies, alleging that independent bookstores, publishers, and literacy nonprofits are either complicit in (and potentially even initiating) illicit drug smuggling. Incredibly, however, Departments of Corrections have so far not provided substantial and sustained evidence that the primary conduit of drugs into prisons. Most evidence actually points to staff as the primary conduit of contraband into carceral facilities. And yet, much more effort, time, and money is being devoted to censoring reading materials. Censorship is oppressive and even leads to a decline in mental health. Martin Lizarragar, who is incarcerated in California, said that this type of oppression has not only hurt himself, but also his family and community. “It has even, on one occasion, broke me down to tears,” Lizarragar told PEN America. “This just isn't right.” We are right to ask whether the underlying rationale is aimed at foreclosing community, restricting potential interactions, and denying that incarcerated people are still members of society whose voices should be heard and merit access to information as we all do. ## Transcript Over the past 18 months the justice department has been working to defend the reproductive freedoms that are protected by federal law as part of that work. We are continuing to vigilantly monitor state laws enforcement actions that threaten to infringe on women's Reproductive Rights last month. We filed a statement of interest in two lawsuits challenging the Alabama attorney general to prosecute people who provide assistance to women seeking lawful out-of-state abortions. As I said on the day that Dobbs was decided Bedrock constitutional principles dictate that women who reside in states that a band access to comprehensive reproductive care must remain free to seek vet care in states where it is legal brief explains that the threatened Alabama prosecution's infringed the constitutional right to travel. It also makes clear that states may not punish third-parties for assisting women in exercising that right. We are also continuing to litigate the suit we brought to ensure that women and Idaho have access to Emergency Care guaranteed by the federal emergency medical treatment and Labor Act or emtala Idaho's law prohibits abortion. Even when it is a medically necessary treatment to stabilize a patient's emergency medical condition. Last week we filed a brief in the Supreme Court reserved and injunction that blocks Idaho's law to the extent. It prohibits doctors from providing the care that is required by the justice department will continue to visually monitor laws and actions that infringe on federal protections of Reproductive Rights and we will take Appropriate action to defend those rights. We are also continuing to advise federal agencies on legal issues related to reproductive health and the aftermath of dops and we are defending agencies as litigation arises more than two decades ago the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug meth a stone as safe and effective to terminate early pregnancies when in an unprecedented decision issued earlier this year the district court for the Northern District of Texas displaced the fda's expert judgment and blocked the agency's approval of mifeprex stone. We quickly obtained stay that decision from the Supreme Court while the case is on appeal. And now that the fifth circuit has affirmed The District Court's decision in part. We are seeking Supreme Court review to ensure that differ Prestone remains available on the terms approved by the FDA. The Department of Justice will not cease its efforts to preserve access to mifeprex Stone and defend the fda's expert judgments. We continue to work to protect Healthcare Providers and people seeking reproductive Health Services. We continue to enforce the freedom of access to the clinic and princes act known as the face act that law prohibits anyone from obstructing access to reproductive health services including abortion Services pharmacies to provide reproductive health care services and pregnancy counseling services to violence threats of violence or property damage. We are working to ensure that prosecutors across the country are equipped to bring face. At cases and we have emphasized that civil rights division attorneys are always available for consultation and technical assistance. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6329800/prison-book-bans-censorship-essay/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6329800/prison-book-bans-censorship-essay/"},"headline":"How Prison Book Bans Dwarf All Other Censorship","datePublished":"2023-10-30T15:45:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:50:47.995Z","description":"PEN America’s new report, Reading Between the Bars, details the many ways prisons censor books.","url":"https://time.com/6329800/prison-book-bans-censorship-essay/","keywords":["Books","freelance"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf86c8d057b7d295a/698a41c7b3fce328d90caf3a/prison-libraries-bans.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Moira Marquis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/moira-marquis/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf86c8d057b7d295a/698a41c7b3fce328d90caf3a/prison-libraries-bans.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"prison-libraries-bans","caption":"Books in prison, concept of freedom of thought","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6329800/prison-book-bans-censorship-essay/","name":"How Prison Book Bans Dwarf All Other Censorship"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Justice Department is ‘Vigilantly Monitoring’ Actions That Infringe on Reproductive Rights, Says Attorney General","description":"U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland says the Justice Department is vigilantly monitoring any laws or actions that infringe on federal protections of women's reproductive rights.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Yqzgkkv0/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-12-04T21:42:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Yqzgkkv0.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6329800/prison-book-bans-censorship-essay/","duration":"PT3M48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6329800/prison-book-bans-censorship-essay/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```