"That's how totalitarian systems operate."

October 29, 2023 1:16 PM

Prison Banned Books Week (PEN America, UPI, The Hill, Axios)

The most banned book was “Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories from Behind Bars” by Clifton Collins Jr. and Gustavo “Goose” Alvarez, a collaboration between an actor and former inmate that examines different ways to cook ramen noodles. A self-help book by Robert Greene called “48 Laws of Power” is the second most banned.

posted by box (3 comments total)

"The United States of [Redacted/Redaction] Maps offer a snapshot of carceral censorship across the fifty states. [Mariame Kaba] invited three artists to offer their interpretations inspired by [Faith] Ringgold’s work. Using data from PEN America, Danbee Kim, Pablo Mendoza, and Kruttika Susarla created artistic representational maps of book bans in US prisons."
posted by girandole at 3:38 PM on October 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

I just read this article Many Prisons Restrict Books to Stop Drug Smuggling. Critics Say It Doesn’t Work.

Volunteers who mail books to people in prison said they see proof of that in the requests they get every day. A sign language dictionary for a man whose child was losing their hearing meant connection to family. Books for a woman taking a course behind bars was her path to a degree. A Buddhist workbook was comfort for a man on death row.

But fulfilling these requests is becoming more difficult in some states because books represent something else for prison officials: a way to smuggle in drugs. In recent years and months, states including Iowa, Missouri and Texas have cracked down on who can send books, citing concerns over narcotics-laced paper. And prisons across the country are rejecting books because they argue that stains, packaging materials or stickers on the pages could contain dangerous substances.

...

In Iowa prisons, books can only come from two approved vendors, a policy adopted in 2021 according to local news reports. But those vendors have limited selections. For example, Ralph Ellison’s classic book “Invisible Man,” which explores issues of racism and Black identity, is not available from either vendor, despite being a key piece of the U.S. literary canon.

Eric Strenge has been incarcerated for nearly 17 years and said book access in Iowa prisons is “getting worse and worse.”

posted by spamandkimchi at 6:25 PM on October 29, 2023 [6 favorites]

"smuggling drugs" or the more general "contraband" is a handy excuse for banning things in many contexts to which ive been exposed

kind of like "a junkie exists" is a fun excuse for locking up formerly-public bathrooms, police surveillance of grocery-store parking lots, or putting certain cleaning products behind glass.

"punish everyone because on one (possibly imaginary) bad actor" is a common authoritarian flex.

everything in the USA is getting worse and worse. nothing gets better. probly gonna die soon without ever having lived

so god blast america
posted by Rev. Irreverent Revenant at 12:50 PM on October 30, 2023 [2 favorites]