The Arizona Department of Corrections has banned prisoners from reading a book that discusses racial injustice in the criminal justice system.
Georgetown University criminal law professor Paul Butler, the author behind 2017’s “Chokehold: Policing Black Men,” told The Associated Press that he was informed his book was banned due to its “unauthorized content.”
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“I disavow violence because first, I think it’s immoral, and second, because it wouldn’t work,” Butler told AP. “I’ve received letters from several inmates who have read ‘Chokehold’ while they are serving time. No one has indicated that reading ‘Chokehold’ has caused any problems in prison.”
The apparent ban has outraged First Amendment advocates. Now the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has gotten involved and has urged the corrections department to reverse the ban or face legal action, The Hill reported.
“In order for them to ban a book, they have to show the restriction is related to a legitimate prison interest,” Emerson Sykes, an attorney representing the ACLU, told the AP in a statement. “There’s no interest to keep inmates from learning about the criminal justice system and policing.”
According to Sykes, the ACLU is prepared to sue if prison officials fail to the organization’s written request to end the book’s ban.
About 14.5 percent of Arizona’s prison population is Black people, even though Blacks comprise only 5 percent of the state’s total population, AP reported. Arizona has one of the country’s highest incarceration rates of Black men.
“One in 19 Black men are in prison in Arizona right now,” Butler told the AP. “Rather than acknowledge it’s a good thing that inmates want to read about and debate important public policy, Arizona pushes back against rehabilitation, against literacy, against the Constitution.”
Arizona officials argue that the book is potentially “detrimental to the safe, secure and orderly operation” of prison facilities, according to a letter reviewed by NPR that the Arizona Department of Corrections sent to The New Press, the New York-based publisher of Butler’s book.
Prisons have the right to ban certain books as the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the right of prisons to ban books if it is to protect prison security.
“In Arizona, prisons forbid inmates from reading materials that could incite a riot. Any publications containing ‘unacceptable sexual or hostile behavior’ are also banned,” NPR reported.
