Some New York Times best sellers are banned in NC prisons

While schools consider banning books, thousands of North Carolinians already are living in places where certain books and magazines aren't allowed - our state prisons.

Posted 2:50 a.m. Mar 30, 2023 — Updated 10:30 p.m. Mar 30, 2023

Ali Ingersoll

, WRAL Investigative Data Journalist

Where the Crawdads Sing – the North Carolina-based novel - landed on the New York Times best seller list – and also the master list of disapproved publications in the state’s prisons. It’s among more than 800 books and magazines people who are currently incarcerated aren’t allowed to have.

"A book is a tool when you're incarcerated to free your mind," said Kerwin Pittman, an advocate for those who are incarcerated.

While schools consider banning books, thousands of North Carolinians already are living in places where certain books and magazines aren’t allowed – our state prisons.

"When people rights and freedoms are starting to be trampled upon, outside of being incarcerated - and they shouldn't be while incarcerated - but it is extremely concerning on both sides," said Pittman.

Books on race, sexuality among most targeted across NC schools

The Color Purple, The Burning of Black Wall Street, some editions of Men’s Health and Harper’s Bazaar, Orange is the New Black are all titles that landed on the master list this year too and are not allowed behind bars.

Those are some publications that are perplexing to Kerwin Pittman. He's the executive director of Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services, or RREPS, a nonprofit focused on helping individuals who were previously incarcerated come home transition, post release, transition into society successfully.

"Some books I could kind of understand, especially when it comes to safety concerns but majority of the books, it makes no sense," said Pittman.

The master list is reviewed and updated annually, according to the policy. In the past, other banned books included The New Jim Crow, The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria.

"It's no rhyme or reason to the ban," said Pittman. "It's like just how I feel today when I wake up and this is how I feel and so I'm gonna ban this book."

The grounds for banning material is vast. There are 17 reasons listed as guidelines for why items should be disapproved. The policy we received from the state sums it up as material which could result in threats to institutional safety and security. This could be information regarding violence, sexually graphic descriptions and depictions, manufacturing or concealment of drugs and weapons. The state Department of Public Safety has discretion to disapprove something. If a single page includes any disapproved material, it’s sufficient to disapprove the entire publication, according to the policy.

The policy also says that disapproving material for everyone in the prison system is necessary "because offenders are permitted to exchange or otherwise redirect permitted materials within the facility, the treatment of materials is not dependent upon the status, background or underlying offense of the intended recipient."

While there’s a form in the policy that requires an explanation for why something was banned, the master list doesn’t include the reasoning.

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