In the present day, prisons ban stuff for… seemingly no reason? There have bans on
The Chicken Handbook: A Practical Guide to Keeping Hens and Other Fine-Feathered Friends.
101 Things to Do With Mac and Cheese
Godzilla vs. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
And 1000 Dot to Dot Animals, which is an activity book of connect the dot games.
Regulations vary by state and jurisdiction and facility so I want to clear: I am not doing a comprehensive study here. If you want to send a book to someone who you personally know in prison, my advice to you is to get in touch with the prison mail director, and they can walk you through the rules that apply to their mail room. I’m not going to do that here. I’m going big picture, talking about books that have been banned in at least one prison, and pointing out some patterns.
Wicca is a minority religion, theoretically protected by the First Amendment, but at different times, prisons have banned
The Interdenominational Wiccan Bible,
and the WICCA Book of Spells.
They ban a lot of books that deal with anti-Black racism.
“Black Skin, White Masks”
“But, Didn’t You Kill Malcolm?”
“FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM. A HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICANS”
And “A Question of Freedom,” just to name a few.
From "What Frederick Douglass and Modern American Inmates Have in Common". Available free on Spotify and YouTube