Censorship Survey Results

"Yes. No, it is not applied fairly, if you have a sex case, they restrict Adult magazines/books, manga, photos of your children."
IL/Wicc

"No. "Not allowed""
NBCI

"No. They just say its un-authorized"
Indiana/ IYC

"No. They dont. You may or may not recieve a confiscation slip with no reason on it."
IN 46168

"No. Sometimes they do but they give you a list thats not in handbook, you only can have 10 pics, but they let you send in 50"
Cook County Jail

"No. They do not know."
Cook County Jail

"No. If something is blocked, we receive a yellow carbon copy notice informing us that an item was returned and an item(s) will be checked to indicate which item and a brief explanation may be providfed at the bottom of the notice."
CCDOC/IL

"No. It has always been vague, and used as an excuse to ban what they want."
llinois, USP-Marion

". Rather you receive a clear explanation of the censorship policy or not, it all comes down to who is the publication review officer. If it's a crank, he'll come up with soemthing to censor whatever he chooses."
Westville Correctional Facility

"Yes. To my knowledge in my experience it is consistant & fair."
IL, Jacksonville

"No. You get a notice in the mail stating the block parcel photo's or letters"
IL, Hill corrctr

"No. They always reach to the safety of the facility. Provacative magazines with beautiful women in them, can encourage homosexual relationships."
Ind, New Castle

"No. I will include a copy of my notice."
USP Marion

"No. Send a confiscation form or notice of return mail."
Cook County Jail

"No. At Wabash Valley Corr. Fac. the mail-RM told me that there's no policy on Hard-COver books and at other facilities they're restricted."
Westville Correctional Facility

"No. They love to quote "A danger to institution safety, peace, and security""
USP-Beaumont

"No. Boilerplate forms with statute numbers and a summary of why denied. (The statute number is in case we want to look it up. Then they make it very hard to finally obtain the statue.) I have been in IL prisons that actually meet. with you to discuss what's banned and any future option you have."
IL Menard Doc

"No. Always: "unusual stains""
Dixon. C.C

"No. All they usually say is it is confiscated due to facility policy. If you are lucky they might give you a bullshit excuse why they confiscated it. It all comes down to them trying to control us."
Miami Corr Fac Indiana

"No. Not much really, just that it's not allow & poses a threat to the facility."
USP-Coleman I

"No. The more oblique the better it seems - see above."
Elkton FCI

"No. "Prohibited Items""
Westville Correctional Facility

"No. When something is denied we get no say-so and the paper we get is too vague with simple descriptions such as - obsinity on pg 24, or security threat on page 24..."
Pinckneyville Correctional Center

"No. At my previous and present facility, the book censorship policy is vague. It basically is up to whoever is in the mail room."
Menard CC IL

"No. LOL 🙂 I laughed when reading this one. They not telling you NOTHING. They don't believe in "clear explanation". All they know is get rid of it..."
CCDOC

"No. No explanation and no consistancy. Sometimes packages that are not marked "BOP Approved" get through, sometimes not. I've had a packe of books rejected and the mailroom sent me a notice that a greeting card was rejected."
Federal Satellite Low Elkton

". You get a receipt and option to appeal the issue."
Salinas Valley State Prison

"Yes. Very few policies here are applied consistently or fairly. We get a rejection notice on a preprinted form. They generally tell us why it is rejected."
Federal Corr Inst. Perkin, IL

"No. I asked for a pinckneyville manuel and they refuse to give me one on the rules and regulations."
Pinckneyville Prison Facility

". Don't remember."
Big Muddy River CC IL

"Yes. They gave us the why and how come they feel things are to be banned and they also give us the option to have warden review to have him decide if the mail room decision is valid."
North Dakota State Penitentiary

"No. I don't find out about it till some thing gets stopped."
Big Muddy River CC IL

"No. No, they choice what they want to ben in their view."
Big Muddy River CC IL

"No. Nothing in the IDOC is consistent or fair. Everything say is bullshit."
Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, IN

". If they did, I never saw or read them"
N/A

"No. I've never given any clear explanation of the facilities censorship policy. They just say something has been blocked or rejected but never tells me what it was exactly."
N/A

"Yes. They allow hard cover and soft cover books, but they are really strict on anything that has anything sexual in its material."
Pinckneyville Corr. Ctr.

"No. Cannot recieve mail because of stains, scrabbles, drawings, perfume, etc."
Centralia corrections

"No. "
IDOC Vianna CC

"No. To my knowledge my current facility does what they want and previous places I have been in Indiana still receive mail the old way or regualr way."
Indiana/ISF

"No. They are too lazy to do so. Or they do not do so because then they can chagnge them and make them up as they go."
IL, Marlor

"No. "safety and security" on occassion."
I.S.P

"Yes. Due to prea law back from the early 2000's, they claimed sexual boom was why people get raped which was a lie. The other book, they deny because they actually teach us to think."
Clifford Clark

"No. They just say unauthorized material. They do not go over policy with you other than in the handbook."
PA-Rockview

"No. I have not recieved a policy but they sent a notice say that certain Jewish items are not allowed. Just a no, not a policy of saying what we can and cant have."
Dixon-Illinois

"Yes. Applied consistently but VERY far reaching. Borderline unconstitutional in regards to free speech."
FCI Pekin

"No. They don't tell you when things get blocked. It's our responsibility to read the DOC codes"
WIDOC Taycheedah

"No. I never and don't really know the censorship policy"
WI Oshkosh

"Yes. Yes, but the policy is so subjective that it can be used to deny anything."
WI Stanley Correctional

"No. The policy is not clear at all. The furthest any of the handbooks we are issued at WCI go is basically no gang-related publications, no pornographic publications, and no nudity in personal photos. It does not define exactly what falls under those terms, and as I've found out the hard way the definitions can defy common sense, or even normal legal standards.
I've detailed my ordeal with the WIDOC's porn policy separately, but suffice to say one has to have access to the legal library and research before they'll know what is or isn't allowed. IN case I still don't find it clear since the WIDOC porn policy is more restrictive than what multiple Court decisions say, prisoners have a right to access, to the point where we get denied books with the same level or less explicit content than what one might see in an R-rated movie.

Like I described in Question 1, enforcement is inconsistant and unfair. Denial based on "nudity" when there is none or it's very limited (our state policy says nudity is disallowed only if the publication features it on a regular basis, or a one-time issue promotes itself based on nudity). Denial based on themes that aren't outlined by policy and would even be protected by the First Amendment.

But at times I've received books and comics that are absolutely sexually graphic. A "Letters to Penthouse" collection and "Object of Desire, a manga with sex depicted so graphically that the only non-porn I've seen that are explicitly detailed as "Not Rated" works like Nymphomaniac. Unlike a hentai manga, "Object" doesn't focus on the genitals, penetration, etc, usually, and when it does, it is stylized in a way that sort of self-censors the most graphic details of anatomy. It's more about the romance of sex, but you can still see things such as a female with her mouth around the shaft of a penis.
As well, network TV like "Law and ORDER: SVU" regularly depicts what the WIDOC policy would define as "human sexual behavior" (prohibited even without nudity), and this institution itself has played a number of PG-13 films with brief nudity and strong sexual content, or even R-rated films with full frontal nudity and explicit sex scenes."
WIDOC Waupun

"No. Included with this urvey is my most recent notice of returned mail which was for the Beserk manga comic mentioned in my response to question 1. If something is denied, this is all we get."
Western Illinois Correctional Center

". Yes and no, the funny thing is in the SHU here, we are allowed books and newspapers (personal books) when I learned this I had a copy of the manual and rules in SHU and my celly requested a copy and when he got it the SHU policy was missing, the SHU LT said the rules weren't in there"
MCC Chicago

"No. Chambers only tells me what she wants me to know. Sometimes she confiscates things, sends them back and never tells you. There is never a clear censorship policy. It's only Chamber's censorship policies."
Indiana Pendleton

"No. No direct policy or censorship information is given. Any policy regarding any facility procedure is available on electronic tablets. However, tablets are not always available to every new inmate. Aside from this, new and updated policies can be accessed on the tablets when made current and delivered immediately."

"No. "
FCI Butner

"No. We normally are not told anything, our letters or books simply vanish."
USP Marion

"No. The policy is: we'll do whatever we want without explanation. We'll lie. We'll operate in secrecy. And don't question us or we'll place you in segregation, or send you to supermax in Boscobel."
WI/JCI

"No. It's up to you to look it up in the law library yourself to see how petty they can get"
FCI Petersburg

"Yes. The policy is clearly listed in Wisconsin Aministrative Code Dept of Corrections 309.04 / 309.05 and pornography is clearly defined in 309.02. No! it's not applied fairly ever! Staff can choose at a whim what do deny."
WIDOC

"no. They just started to copy our devotionals. They also do not allow us to get envelopes sent to us for return mail."
NCCF