What is “the most pervasive form of censorship in the United States”? It is carceral censorship. In general, censorship in the USA is currently increasing from year to year. Freedom of expression – and thus also the freedom to say, write and read – is in principle a universal human right enshrined in the US Constitution. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of books are banned every year – and the trend is rising.
PEN America tirelessly points out the book bans in school libraries and classrooms. In 2022/23, the Kasseler Liste adopted several editions of the US school censorship ban lists compiled by PEN America.
Another, less visible area of censorship is American prisons. In an article titled “America’s unseen book bans: the long history of censorship in prisons,” The Guardian explained: “book banning is a widespread and longstanding practice in US prisons. Carceral facilities scrutinize what books and magazines can be offered in their libraries, can be taught in their classes or can be mailed to people on the inside.”
PEN America’s comprehensive Report “Reading Between the Bars. An In-Depth Look at Prison Censorship” (Oct. 25, 2023) provides a detailed overview of censorship in individual states. PEN America’s FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to the state departments of corrections and prison systems demonstrate: The leader in prison censorship is Florida with 22,825 titles by September 2023; according to PEN America, it is thus far ahead of Texas which has banned ‘only’ 10,265 titles (these are already part of the Kasseler Liste).
It is not easy for non-government organizations and civil rights watchdogs to document and make visible the current prison censorship in all US states. PEN America succeeded in obtaining 28 banned-book lists through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests it submitted to every state. In addition, the activities of The Marshall Project (“non profit journalism about criminal justice”) and the website of Books to Prisoners should be mentioned here. In 2019, Books to Prisoners, in collaboration with the Human Rights Defense Center, published banned lists from 21 US states. Prison mailrooms use such banned lists to filter incoming books.
The censorship documents themselves are very interesting.
The Example of Arizona
For the state of Arizona, the Books to Prisoners website lists several ban lists from various years. In 2019, the Human Rights Defense Center received a list from the Arizona Department of Corrections (DOC). This list, dated June 30, 2019, contains 4673 entries, which are now also available in the Kasseler Liste. (The DOC list distinguishes between “Complex Disposition Date” and “OPR Disposition Date”. They are listed under “ban date”; both are listed if they differ.)
Incidentally, 20 days earlier, almost twice as many titles had been banned in Arizona’s prisons! Books to Prisoners explains the difference between the two lists from July 10 and July 30 as follows: “The alteration in the list of banned books was presumably prompted by two events during 2019: successful litigation by the Human Rights Defense Center that challenged the application of “sexual content” as a reason for rejection in Arizona prisons, and a separate threat of litigation by Prof. Paul Butler and the ACLU regarding a ban by the DOC on Butler’s book, Chokehold.”
The Example of Florida
Florida exercises intense prison censorship. As mentioned above, the state itself reported 22,825 censored titles in response to an FOIA request in September 2023. Books to Prisoners provides two lists that the Human Rights Defense Center has received: the “Florida LRC Decisions” from 1991 to 2011 and from 2012 to 2019. These lists, which include both approved and rejected titles, are taken from the meeting minutes of the Literature Review Committee. A current example of these records – the minutes for May 2025 – can be found here (it was made available to “Books to Prisoners” by PEN America).
From 1991 to 2011, the LRC banned approximately 9,090 titles and approved 3,360. From 2012 to 2019, 7,866 titles were banned and 2,512 were approved. We have included the bans from the 2012-2019 list in the Kasseler Liste.
The Example of Georgia
Compared to other states, prison censorship in Georgia appears much less comprehensive, systematic and well-documented. A “PRC (Professional Regulation Commission) Master Denied List” of the state of Georgia from 2022 includes approximately 300 titles that were banned from 2015 to 2022 (and that are now part of the Kasseler Liste). The original document produced by the Georgia Department of Corrections, which appears strangely unprofessional, hastily compiled and erroneous (despite featuring the governor’s official letterhead), can be viewed online in an unprotected Word document. In this form, it was made available to Books to Prisoners.
The Example of Iowa
In 2019, the Human Rights Defense Center received the Iowa Master Publications List (2019), which contained approximately 3,770 titles. These were either “accepted” – approximately 3,270 titles, marked with an A – or “denied” – approximately 500 titles, marked with a D – during a formal review. The organization Books to Prisoners, which refers to the list, emphasizes that the proportion of accepted books is “extremely high” and that they include many titles “that are often banned in other states.” According to Books to Prisoners, this “indicates that Iowa has good review policies.” The Kasseler Liste now contains the approximately 500 books classified as banned in Iowa prisons in 2019.
Why are prisoners not allowed to read?
A lot of the banned titles in Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Iowa prisons are magazines: fashion magazines such as “Elle” or “Cosmopolitan”, sports and health magazines. The main reason for the bans on individual issues is “sexual content”, which is also used to ban National Geographic or architecture journals.
Hip hop magazines and instructions on how to draw dragons or vampires are banned, as well as practical guides of all kinds – manual, technical, geographical and therapeutic. Obviously, these sweeping measures are intended to prevent people from building weapons or escape tools, from making drugs or going into hiding after an escape.
In this sense, however, almost everything can be banned: Why are fitness guides banned in the same way as a book on dog psychology? Because gaining muscle makes you more dangerous – because you learn to train an attack dog…?
Prisoners are not allowed to read books and magazines about outdoor life, camping, fishing or cycling. About fashion or art (naked bodies!). About psychology or naturopathy. The acquisition of knowledge is radically restricted and education is prevented on a broad scale.
Books to Prisoners, like many other activist groups and journalists, therefore criticizes the ongoing, comprehensive and restrictive prison censorship in the USA. They denounce the arbitrariness, harmfulness and illegality of the bans (see the press here: https://www.bookstoprisoners.net/articles-about-prisons). Censorship infantilizes adult prisoners and does more harm than good to rehabilitation.
The Kasseler Liste started its documentation of censorship in U.S. prisons with Texas.
Now we are continuing with Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Iowa.
The titles banned there (Arizona: 2019; Florida: from 2012 to 2019; Georgia: from 2015 to 2022; Iowa: 2019) are now included in the Kasseler Liste: Enter “Arizona prisons”, “Florida prisons”, “Georgia prisons” or “Iowa prisons” in the field “country of ban”.
Die Kasseler Liste, September 2025
(Image source: pixabay)