SAN FRANCISCO, CA – New state laws demand greater scrutiny on book bans in California, including Assembly Bill 1986 that requires the Inspector General to post the Centralized List of Disapproved Publications for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on a website, reported Bay City News last week.
Assembly Bill 1825 will prohibit banning books based on race, nationality, religion, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
Bay City News quoted Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), who authored Assembly Bill 1986, noted, “AB 1986 is designed to bring accountability and increased transparency to CDCR’s book banning process…It’s time to stop banning books that help people transform their lives.”
Damone Ray Clark, who has been incarcerated for almost 40 years and has had books taken from him, stated that “education is supposed to be important to the process of rehabilitation.”
According to Bay City News, a federal appeals court ruling states publishers have a First Amendment right to communicate with prisoners by mail and prisoners have a First Amendment right to receive it, but CDCR prohibits any publication it considers to be contraband.
According to Assemblymember Bryan, most books banned seem to be disproportionately written by Black and Latino authors and activists, including 2pac vs. Biggie: An Illustrated History of Rap’s Greatest Battle, A Child of a Crackhead, and Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party.
Bryan also points out: “In California prisons you can read ‘Mein Kampf’ by Hitler, but you can’t read ‘A Prisoner In the Garden’ by Nelson Mandela,” he said.
Bay City News writes, under Assembly Bill 1986, any affected person may request that the OIG (Office of Inspector General) review any publication on the list to determine if the office concurs with CDCR’s determination that the publication violates policy. If the OIG doesn’t agree, it will notify CDCR.
Bay City News reported closer scrutiny will also be applied to California public libraries’ book bannings under the Freedom to Read law. Assembly Bill 1825, authored by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, (D-Torrance), will prohibit banning books based on race, nationality, religion, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
Banned books by Black authors include classics like Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and more recently, Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt by Orisanmi Burton.
Burton rejects the notion his book “advocates … lawlessness, violence, anarchy, or rebellion against governmental authority,” or that it “incites disobedience,” as was claimed in a memo from New York prison officials, said Bay City News.
Together, Assembly Bill 1986 and Assembly Bill 1825 establish new requirements for reviewing and disclosing book bans in California prisons and public libraries, reported Bay City News.
