The Arkansas Department of Corrections is set to ban all physical books, magazines and newspapers sent directly to inmates — a restriction, pushed as a drug-fighting measure, that would be strictest of its kind in prisons across the country.
The ban was set to take effect Sunday but has been delayed as the department continues to revise the current rule, which allows books, magazines and newspapers to be sent directly to inmates from a “publisher, bookstore, educational institution, or recognized commercial or charitable outlet.”
Some lawmakers and advocacy groups are asking for legislative review as well as a public comment period. The revised regulation would impact about 17,000 men and women behind bars in 20 prison facilities.
As State Rep. Nicole Clowney (D) sees it, there are other solutions “that do not rob incarcerated people of their rights and of their ability to ready themselves to succeed after their release.” She said legislators have not been given evidence that drugs are infiltrating prisons via printed materials.
Rand Champion, a department spokesperson, said the ban was proposed because of instances when drugs have been detected in shipments of books and periodicals sent to prisons. An agency log reviewed by The Washington Post listed 25 incidents from 2022 to 2025 in which books, magazines or newspapers tested positive for drugs such as K2, a synthetic marijuana, or fentanyl. Champion said the total was higher but did not provide any documentation.
In one case, a shipment of books sent directly from Books-A-Million to Varner Unit, a facility southeast of Little Rock, looked “altered” and tested positive for heroin and fentanyl. When asked how shipments straight from a major commercial outlet would be intercepted and tainted with drugs, Champion said prison officials believe some books are being sent via “shadow booksellers.”
According to an expert on prison censorship, states are increasingly targeting paper media. Moira Marquis, founder and director of Prison Banned Books Week, said suspected contraband is the prime reason cited by prison officials. The restrictions vary, though. Missouri, for example, only allows inmates to choose from a limited selection of books that can be purchased during specific times.
If the Arkansas ban is challenged in the courts, Marquis said, officials will have to prove that screening books for drugs constitutes an “administrative burden.” Based on her research, she believes it does not.
The ban would follow a decision last August to stop allowinginmates to receive physical mail, instead giving them electronic tablets to send e-messages via “stamps.” (Stamps can cost as much as $0.50 each; any purchase on a tablet also incurs a steep processing fee.)
Officials are in the process of soliciting bids from prison telecommunications companies, which provide phone services to inmates and sell tablets enabling them to purchase books, music, games and news. These companies have been scrutinized for steep prices, surveillance issues, and faulty technology.
The Arkansas Department of Corrections currently has a $720,000 contract with Securus that expires in April. The length of the next contract is still being negotiated, Champion said.
Inmates still have access to the libraries at their prisons, though the collections rely mostly on donations and the books on the shelves are often outdated. Some prison tablet companies tout free, preloaded books on their devices; the titles are free because they are at least 100 years old and part of the public domain.
Opponents of the new policy argue that banning physical media from Arkansas prisons will make it significantly harder for inmates to access books, magazines, newspapers and educational materials, limiting their access to information, noted Kaleem Nazeem, co-director of the prison reform group decARcerate.
“As we unpack this book ban, we also have to look at the existing policies surrounding censorship of information,” Nazeem said, noting that current rules already limit what books can enter the state’s prisons.
While states such as Florida and Texas ban specific books from prisons, the Arkansas corrections department allows individual facilities to determine if a book is allowed. In most cases, the decision-makers are prison employees who work in the mail room.
Nazeem served 28 years in Arkansas state prisons after being sentenced to life without parole for a murder he committed when he was 17. After his sentence was commuted in 2018 he became a community organizer and youth mentor in juvenile detention centers. Having physical books and newspapers were a tether to the outside world while he was serving time, he said.
“The catalyst of change lies in the book,” said Nazeem, who is especially concerned about inmates enrolled in college courses being able to access the educational texts needed to complete their degrees. “If individuals are not able to get books, we’re basically saying that we don’t want individuals to become better.”
Marquis disagrees with the premise of the bans, arguing that evidence shows the majority of contraband in U.S. prisons is brought in via correctional staff, not books or newspapers. “It’s astounding that this argument continues to have sway in the public, and I think it’s because it makes sense very speciously,” she said.
Like Nazeem, Clowney is concerned what inmates would lose under the ban. “My fear is if you take away books saying they’ll be replaced by tablets, that leaves a certain subset of the population that won’t have access to either,” she said. “And that’s very, very troubling.”
She hopes corrections officials reconsider and find other solutions to prevent drugs from entering their facilities. “I just refuse to believe that 49 other states have figured this out in a way that doesn’t rob prisoners of their rights,” she said, “but Arkansas somehow cannot.”
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