Defend the right to read in prison!

The most banned book in U.S. prisons—banned in 19 prison systems—is the cookbook "Prison Ramen" by Clifton Collins, Jr. and Gustavo Alvarez. Prisons in the United States are banning thousands of books, including the Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary and titles like "Don’t Touch Me! Say No to Sexual Harassment." Sometimes the bans are coming from individuals in prisons—wardens and mailroom employees—and other books are banned by entire prisons or mandated by state restrictions. These bans (and the rationale behind them) are often not thoroughly documented, tracked or reported on. Content-based prison book bans disproportionately impact incarcerated communities of color and LGBTQIA+ people, and they prevent the 60% of people who are incarcerated who struggle with literacy from learning how to read and write. Roughly 95% of people who are incarcerated will return back to their communities—and prisons should encourage, not restrict, reading and education.

It’s no coincidence that the states where we are seeing major book bans in schools and libraries, like Texas and Florida, are also restricting books in prisons. As we work to dismantle the system of mass incarceration in the United States that unjustly imprisons 1.2 million people, we can make sure that those who are incarcerated have access to basic necessities like quality shelter, food, medical care, as well as the ability to read, learn, and grow.

Sign the petition and help fight what PEN America calls “the most pervasive form of censorship” in the U.S.