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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsReport: Ohio prisons ban books about criminal justice reform, allow 'Mein Kampf' to circulate
According to research done by The Marshall Project, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) has been prohibiting prisoners from reading books about criminal justice reform, while allowing other books like Adolf Hitlers memoir Mein Kampf.
The Marshall Project put together a database listing all the books banned in several states, with the Ohio prison system specifically stopping inmates from reading about ways their conditions could potentially improve. One book, Rethinking the American Prison Movement by Dan Berger and Toussaint Losier, recounts the ongoing struggles caused by harsh prison conditions and efforts to reform prisons in the name of justice. ODRC banned this book in January 2020, and the book is among hundreds of pieces of literature to be prohibited in Ohio prisons from 2018 to 2022.
ODRCs reason for not letting these books in is because they are harmful to rehabilitation and prison discipline. Other banned works include erotic novels, criminal biographies and computer coding guides. The coding guides are banned despite the state having a vocational training program in the states prisons.
Meanwhile, other books of the same nature have been allowed. ODRC has allowed a compilation of letters to the erotic Penthouse Magazine, The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene and a book about drug kingpin El Chapo (ODRC banned El Chapo Blood Money by Luke Johnson banned but no other El Chapo-related books.)
https://heartlandsignal.com/2023/06/22/report-ohio-prisons-ban-books-about-criminal-justice-reform-allow-mein-kampf-to-circulate/
prodigitalson
(2,625 posts)NowISeetheLight
(3,982 posts)Of course letting the prisoners know they still have the right to be treated as human beings is harmful to prison discipline.
mucifer
(24,022 posts)Its a constant struggle to keep track of what prisons will accept. Some wont allow us to send coloring books or origami books or journals. Some will only accept brand new books. Some will accept true crime books. We do thrift books that have guns on the cover.
We just try our best to send women 3 paperback books as close to their requests as we can.
Not at all surprised Criminal Justice books were rejected and Mein Kampf was accepted