Journalists, researchers and volunteers interested in examining book bans in prisons across the country are invited to join this hands-on event. Attendees will hear about the history of these bans from the authors of PEN America’s in-depth report on prison censorship and learn how to request and examine banned-book lists in their community.
This work is part of a collaboration between MuckRock’s Data Liberation Project and The Marshall Project, which are teaming up to uncover what books are banned in state prison systems. We’ll be updating the data that laid the groundwork for The Marshall Project’s 2023 investigative series, which included a reporting toolkit that was ultimately used by dozens of local newsrooms to examine book censorship in state prisons.
We’ll provide data for several states, along with reporting guidance and user research insights. So far, we’ve obtained new carceral book ban records for Texas, Florida, California, Georgia, Virginia, New Jersey Iowa, Kansas, Montana, North Carolina and Illinois. We will add new states to this list as the records keep coming in.
Event speakers include:
Dillon Bergin, data reporter, MuckRock. Bergin will walk attendees through the practical side of this reporting, demonstrating how to request records on banned books from prison systems and how to clean and structure the data once it’s obtained.
Moira Marquis, founder and director, Prison Banned Books Week, an annual campaign raising awareness of prisons as the largest censors in the U.S. Marquis will share insights from the PEN America report, “Reading Between the Bars: An In-Depth Look at Prison Censorship.” Her book “Thought Threats: Carceral Censorship in America” is forthcoming from UNC Press.
Juliana Luna, researcher, Prison Banned Books Week. Luna will share findings from her research on prison censorship, which has been featured in Prison Policy Initiative, The Believer and PEN America.
Moderator Ana Graciela Méndez, product manager, The Marshall Project. Méndez has collected key user research insights from the original database, which has been used by dozens of local newsrooms.