Batman may be a superhero working to put criminals behind bars in Gotham City, but inmates in Texas prisons won’t be able to read about it. According to KUT News, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has banned more than 10,000 books with many of the forbidden titles including comic books and other works of popular fiction from major writers like Stephen King, Anne Rice, and many, many more. According to the report, if a book has been placed on the list — which you can search for yourself here — it means that none of Texas’ 134,000 incarcerated persons can get the book.
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Each of the banned books does have an explanation as to why it was banned. Most of the reasons fit into the six categories of content that are restricted in state prisons, including graphic or sexual content, descriptions of “setting up and operation of criminal schemes”, if it could facilitate an escape, contains information on the manufacture of explosives, weapons, or drugs, or material written to communicate information “designed to achieve the breakdown of prisons through inmate disruption”. That means the book Beekeeping for Dummies, for example, is banned because it contains a recipe for wine while books on wrestling and martial arts are banned for “fighting techniques”.
As for Batman, both Batman: Arkham Knight and Batman: Three Jokers made the list for containing information on “how to escape” in the case of Arkham Knight and “sexually explicit images” for Three Jokers. Many of Rice’s novels are banned for illegal sexual content or sexual images, as is the same reason listed for all current volumes of Image Comics’ Saga. Several of King’s novels are also on the list for various aspects of sexual content, while Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is banned for both sexual content and depictions of escape. Interestingly, books on coding and tax preparation are also on the list because they fall under the “setting up and operation of criminal schemes” category. According to a spokesperson for Texas’ Department of Criminal Justice, however, being on the banned book list now may not mean the book will always be on the list. The department says they have approved some previously rejected books and said in a statement that the department will “continue to evaluate processes and make improvements”.
“TDCJ will continue to evaluate processes and make improvements to meet the needs of the population, while also prioritizing the security and safety of our staff and the individuals in our custody,” Amanda Hernandez said in a statement.
According to KUT News, the majority of the banned books on the list are comic books, including graphic novels and manga and in those cases, it is often the art that triggers the ban, something Saga author Brian K. Vaughn — who is also the fifth most banned author in the list — noted makes the format a target.
“Graphic novels are, at once, I think, hugely appealing to readers,” Vaughn said. “It’s also much easier, I think, to flip through, you know, and say, ‘oh, there’s a nipple.’”
As for what isn’t on the list and, therefore, approved? Adolph Hitler’s Mein Kampf is approved as are two books by former KKK grand wizard David Duke and while the TDCJ’s Hernandez says that it is only the prohibited categories that are taken into consideration when banning a book, with some book on the list being banned for “racial material” some, including Vaughn, see the decisions on what books to ban or not as being more arbitrary — including the decision to ban Saga.
“This story, which is about redemption and forgiveness and the power of non-violence, means a lot to people who are able to get ahold of it,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Texas’ prison book ban has been questioned. Back in 2017, The Dallas Morning News also reported on the various materials banned in Texas prisons, noting at that time that books by Hitler and Duke were (and still are) approved while the book Where’s Waldo? Santa Spectacular and Homer Simpson’s Little Book of Laziness were banned — the latter two books have since come off the banned list. Additionally, this isn’t the only issue of book banning and censorship that Texas more generally has come under fire for. Llano County, Texas has been caught up in a lawsuit regarding library books for over a year when seven library patrons sued county officials following their order of the removal of 17 books from the library over issues of race and LGBTQ identity. A district court had ordered that the books be restored, but the county appealed, resulting in some books being restored but not all, which in turn led to the county to appeal again. The case could ultimately end up in front of the Supreme Court depending on the outcome of the appeal.
