In what is one of the cruelest policies passed in this era of rampant book censorship, and one that flies in the face of long-documented research on the tools that best reduce recidivism, Arkansas will ban all physical books, magazines, and newspapers coming into prisons for individuals starting February 1. This is the strictest ban on sending reading material to prisons in the country. Advocates worry this will launch similar efforts nationwide.
“If it gets enacted in Arkansas, then Texas and other states kind of ping pong off each other when it comes to these draconian policies,” explains Kaleem Nazeem, Co-President of decARcerate. This group helps formerly incarcerated individuals organize and activate against the prison-industrial complex. “This could have a disastrous effect on people in other states, especially in the southern region.”
Censorship thrives in American prisons. It is the number one First Amendment violation in the country. Between ever-shifting policies on what can and cannot enter into prison facilities, a lack of libraries and trained library workers on site, exorbitant costs for access to poorly-made tablets and ebooks (including requiring payment to access books in the public domain), and more, those experiencing incarceration are not only being punished by where they’re at, they’re further denied the ability to learn and grow. Prison censorship isn’t new; it is part of slavery’s legacy.
Arkansas’s new blanket ban undoes the statewide policies that have been in place for nearly 20 years. Before the new policy, employees of the Department of Corrections inspected and decided, on a case-by-case basis, whether materials could be passed to those on the inside. Materials to incarcerated people were already limited to those sent directly from publishers or approved vendors, with bans on materials sent from individuals and unapproved organizations. Now, materials are allowed into the system only through requested donations to prison libraries and/or prison chaplains. Library staffing levels in the system already differ from facility to facility, if such staff exist at all.
The blanket ban on print material for individuals follows accusations that such materials have served as a conduit for smuggling illegal substances into prisons. Dexter Payne, Director of the Arkansas Division of Correction, claimed in a memo that, “there are continued and escalating attempts to introduce unknown, harmful, and potentially fatal substances by soaking or saturating paper items, including books, newspapers, magazines, and legal or religious documents.” To ban any incoming books, magazines, and newspapers, he said, is necessary to ensure safety to corrections staff and individuals experiencing incarceration.
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“I don’t think the majority of the people who are in prison are trafficking in drugs through the mail. This is an overreach to ban all print materials from coming into the prison system,” says Nazeem. “We have to look at how these drugs are coming through officers bringing illegal drugs in. Are we going to put a ban on all the materials they bring in from their lunches all the way down to their legal pads that they put their notes on? If the primary concern is eradicating drugs from the institution, you’ve got to use a wider net and apply policies to those who are working in the prisons.”
Drug smuggling is one of the most typical excuses for such bans, provided without actual data, evidence, or comparison to other means by which “illegal substances” enter the prison system.
“There are serious questions about the veracity of the claims of drugs,” adds Michelle Dillon, Board member of Seattle Books to Prisoners. “A report from 2024 from the New York Department of Investigation discovered that methods currently in use by the Department of Corrections produced false positive rates up to 91% of the time, including when running tests on paper and books. It is extremely likely that this problem exists in every correctional system using these methods to test items in their mailrooms.”
The Marshall Report investigated reports on how print materials became the go-to source for drugs entering prisons in October 2023. Advocates for incarcerated individuals hear similar claims in other states from corrections officials about why their donations are being rejected or outright denied.
But [Dylan] Pyles [co-founder of Liberation Lit] said prison staff, rather than nonprofit book groups, are a more likely source of contraband. The director of the Missouri Corrections Officers Association told the Jefferson City News Tribune that he supports mail restrictions, even though prison staff are a primary source of drugs and smuggling through mail is minimal. In April, police arrested a correctional officer for allegedly smuggling drugs into a facility where there had been overdose deaths.
There is evidence from other states that guards are a source of drugs and other illegal contraband. Since 2018, there have been at least 360 cases of staff smuggling contraband, including drugs, into Georgia state prisons, according to an investigation from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And a study from The Urban Institute that looked at a handful of correctional facilities across the country found staff were a common source of contraband cellphones and cigarettes in Florida.
While Payne emphasizes that incarcerated individuals will retain access to facility libraries and digital materials on prison tablets, these are inadequate and expensive alternatives. Indeed, this blanket ban is an opportunity for prisons to increase costs and decrease selection where such practices are already widely restricted.
“Most people who are incarcerated cannot afford to routinely purchase new books or ebooks on tablets, especially when the systems are built to require money from people in prison for so many other necessities of life, like deodorant and phone calls to loved ones. And it’s important to emphasize that even as we work to repeal this harmful new policy in Arkansas, similar policies are being rolled out in prison systems across the country,” says Dillon.
Arkansas’s prison rates are outstanding, even in a country where they are significantly higher than in other democratic countries. Per the Prison Policy Initiative, over 27,000 people were in Arkansas prisons as of 2023. The most significant percentage of those experiencing incarceration are Black, at roughly three times the rate of their white counterparts. Arkansas is also among the states that saw their prison populations increase following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nazeem, who was sentenced to life in prison at 17 and served 28 years before being released in 2018, found access to books crucial to his education and enrichment. Information helped keep his mind open, and he sees a diverse array of books and reading options as ways for those on the inside to continue bettering themselves.
“Some of the best books I’ve been introduced to are not books that I ordered myself but rather books that were floating around the institution,” he explains. “When you put that moratorium on books coming directly to incarcerated people, then you don’t have those types of gems floating around the prison population. One of those books for me was The Prophet by Kahlil Gibron.”
Revoking the access incarcerated individuals have to request materials strips them of one of their few opportunities to grow and further their potential. Rather than go to the root of the problem–drug rehabilitation services, among others–the state has instead elected to deny educational opportunities to one of its most vulnerable populations. But for the prison industrial complex to thrive, shuttering access to one of the most effective tools against recidivism isn’t just about cruelty. It’s about protecting and fueling the system.
Not all hope is lost, though. Much like censorship in public schools and libraries, on-the-ground advocates can take action to protect access to books for those experiencing incarceration. This is true whether you live in Arkansas or any other U.S. state. decARcerate and Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition urge everyone concerned about basic rights to sign their statement opposing this policy as an unwarranted suppression of reading in prisons. Let Arkansas Department of Corrections administrators and elected officials know that you do not support the suppression of education and reading.
“The average person should take action because the quality of education that individuals receive in prison is lacking at best,” says Nazeem. “The general population has a vested interest in this because we want individuals to come home whole and healthy.”
Learn more about the book ban, as well as about the work being done by decARcerate in their press release.