Banning books in prison: State website lists titles considered inappropriate for inmates

by Steve Brooks, Bay City News February 14, 2025February 13, 2025

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: A sampling of some of the books that have been banned from California's prisons. A new state law aimed at improving transparency requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to maintain a website listing all of its "disapproved publications." (Illustration by Glenn Gehlke/Local News Matters)

A NEW STATE LAW requires California to maintain oversight of all publications banned in state prisons.

The state’s Office of the Inspector General under Assembly Bill 1986 must now post the Centralized List of Disapproved Publications of books, magazines, newspapers, or other publications disapproved by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on a website.

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