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Books

Q&A June 16
Have We Been Wrong About ‘Psychopaths’?
In a new book, Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen questions how courts and prisons use psychopathy diagnoses — and whether they should at all.
By
An illustration shows a transparent silhouette of a mother hugging her child. Inside the silhouette, a White woman in a blue prison uniform sits on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed.
Life Inside January 10
Motherhood Made Me Even More of a Prison and Police Abolitionist
In this excerpt from “We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition,” co-editor Maya Schenwar names an unexpected source of wisdom: children.
By Maya Schenwar
An open book with shredded pages surrounded by images, screenshots, documents, and handwritten quotes. "Threat to the order and security of the institution." "sexually explicit." A table that shows which books are banned in Kansas prisons with reasons. A headline that reads: The Books Banned in your State's Prisons."
Analysis December 8, 2023
Computer Book Bans and Other Insights From a Year Investigating Prison Censorship
Incomplete data. Inconsistent policies. How banned books in prison can strip away an incarcerated person’s vision of the outside world.
By
An illustration shows a yellow spotlight on a man in a green prison suit, standing in front of a book case.
Life Inside November 3, 2023
Prison Is a Dangerous Place for LGBTQ+ People. I Made a Safe Space in the Library.
As a queer teen, Michael Shane Hale found belonging in books. Here’s how he built a place where everyone can read in peace in prison.
By Michael Shane Hale
Eight cropped book covers with shadows behind them appear in a grid against a cream-colored background: “The Egyptian Book of the Dead,” “The Hellbound Heart,” “Captive Nation,” “Black on Black Violence,” “Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic” and “Effective Java.” The center of the grid shows an image of a tool displaying which books are banned in Ohio prisons.
Cleveland June 20, 2023
Ohio Prison System Bans Java Computer Manual, But Allows Hitler’s Mein Kampf
Incarcerated people are baffled by the state’s book screening process.
By The Marshall Project
A grid of 9 book covers set on top of a blue background with sharp shadows: Hand Lettering & Calligraphy, Soledad Brother, Mein Kampf, 50 Shades of Grey, 48 Laws of Power, Prison Ramen, The Color Prple, Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Forgotten Realms On top, there are a few blocks of handwriting pointing to some of the books that read: "Threat to the order and security of the institution," "sexually explicit," "methods of poison"
Graphics February 23, 2023
The Books Banned in Your State’s Prisons
We asked all state systems for book policies and ban lists, then created a database for you.
By The Marshall Project
Michael Bennett reads a book at the Cheshire Correctional Institution in Connecticut, in 2010.
Feature December 21, 2022
Why Would Prisons Ban My Book? Absurdities Rule the System
Censorship kept me from finishing a college essay behind bars. Now, prisons might keep readers from my memoir.
By
Feature June 7, 2022
A Tupperware of Heroin, Or How I Ended Up in Prison
In an excerpt from her new memoir, ‘Corrections in Ink,’ Keri Blakinger puts us at the scene of her drug arrest — and her path to becoming The Marshall Project’s first formerly incarcerated staff writer.
By
Q&A January 7, 2019
The Case Against Cannabis
A journalist’s pursuit of the truth about marijuana, mental illness and violence.
By The Marshall Project
Feature December 6, 2018
Bookshelf
An inexhaustive list of books on criminal justice, curated by The Marshall Project staff until 2019.
By The Marshall Project
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