Activists ‘fight against censorship’ in the largest US book bans: prisons

While book bans in schools and libraries are often reported on, relatively less is known about the extent to which literary censorship affects those imprisoned. Photograph: PM Images/Getty Images

In recent years the issue of book bans has become a major story in the US, often driven by socially conservative pressure groups, but nowhere has the impact of bans been felt more acutely than in America’s enormous prison population, activists and campaigners say.

Books can serve as vital connections to the outside world for incarcerated individuals, yet they are frequently censored in US prisons. Campaigners are advocating for public library catalogs to be accessible on carceral tablets.