In a 2019 Report, PEN America revealed that book restriction policies in American prisons amounted to the nation’s largest book ban. These bans can come from prison-wide, state, or federal policies, and are aimed mostly at material that is deemed sexually explicit, detrimental to security or that disrupts the social order of a prison.But some of these lists can be arbitrary. Previously, books like “Freakonomics” were  banned in prisons in Texas, and a federal prison in Colorado in 2009 blocked a person incarcerated from reading President Barack Obama’s memoirs because they were deemed to be "potentially detrimental to national security."

We spoke with Christopher Blackwell, who is incarcerated at a Washington state facility and is serving a 45 year sentence for crimes he committed in his 20s. In prison, Christopher was prohibited from reading Michael Kimmel's, “Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era.” 

We reached out to the Washington State Department of Corrections to hear why they denied access to the book. They said it was rejected because “The content could reasonably be thought to lead or add to tensions between groups specifically in a prison setting.” They also noted that Christopher appealed and was later granted access to the book.

Today, Christopher is an incarcerated writer and a co-founder of the nonprofit Look2Justice. Last month, Christopher wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about having the right to read and to get an education in American prisons, and about his own experience with book restrictions. We spoke with him about book bans in prison, his own experience with it, and the importance of books and education for rehabilitation in prison.