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A new report from literary organisation PEN America has revealed an eyebrow-raising list of books banned in US prisons, including Spanish language guides and celebrity memoirs.
"The common concept underpinning the censorship we're seeing is that certain ideas and information are a threat," says the report's lead author, Moira Marquis, senior manager in the prison and justice writing department at PEN.
Some states have banned instruction books for non-English languages, worried inmates will be able to then speak in front of guards who won't understand them.
Amy Schumer's memoir The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo also made banned lists due to "sexual content".
PEN said that many of the categories used to justify bans were vague and broad-reaching.
Its report quoted one inmate who said his New Yorker magazines had been withheld due to occasional nudity in the "absurdly innocuous" cartoons.
Another inmate, incarcerated in Virginia, noted that in Virginia prisons, the Game of Thrones TV series is aired unedited on facility TVs – but the book series they are based on, A Song Of Ice And Fire by George RR Martin, are banned.
PEN said whether intentional or not, many books banned for "sexual content" were aimed at queer and transgender audiences.
Security concerns are behind other bans, including a rape prevention guide in Connecticut and an anti-sexual harassment book in Louisiana.
Even a guide to drawing fantasy creatures, Fantasy Artist's Pocket Reference: Incredible Characters, was deemed a threat to security and banned.
PEN said this was part of trend, with similar books on "mind control, shape shifting, and Dungeons And Dragons role-playing" also widely refused entry to prisons.
The apparently worthy practice of keeping racially inflammatory materials out of prison has also led to some questionable decisions, such as the banning of literary giant James Baldwin's book I Am Not Your Negro in Kansas.
Other books to appear on banned lists: Sun Tzu's The Art of War, the compilation Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories from Behind Bars, Barrington Barber's Anyone Can Draw: Create Sensational Artwork in Easy Steps and Robert Greene's self-help best-seller 48 Laws of Power.
The Prison Ramen compilation was the most banned book around the country, PEN found, with recipes and stories provided by former inmates, including celebrities such as Danny Trejo.
PEN places bans into two categories: content-specific, in which books are banned because of what they say or allegedly say, and content-neutral, in which books are restricted because they are not sent through accepted channels.
In Maine, Michigan and other states, prisoners may only receive books through a select number of vendors, whether Amazon, a local bookstore or an approved publisher.
Content-neutral restrictions may also apply to the packaging (some federal facilities only permit white wrapping), and against free or used literature, Marquis said.
A spokesman for the Idaho Department of Correction told Associated Press in an email that restrictions on packaging had become necessary because of "an increase in the amount of drug-soaked mail being sent to our residents."
He added that inmates can receive books and periodicals free of charge from authorised vendors and publishers.
"We believe our guidelines area a reasonable response to a growing problem that puts the health and safety of the people who live and work in Idaho's correctional facilities at risk," he said.
The states with the most banned titles, per their responses, are Florida (22,825 titles up to September 2023), Texas (10,265 titles up to February 2023), Kansas (7699 titles up to 2021), Virginia (7204 titles up to 2022), and New York (5356 titles as of 2019).
