An acclaimed book about discrimination against African Americans in the criminal justice system has been banned from some prisons in New Jersey, according to newly obtained records.
The New Jim Crow, an award-winning book by Michelle Alexander published in 2010, appears on lists of publications that inmates in state correctional facilities may not possess.
New Jersey officials say they'll lift ban on book The New Jim Crow in prisons Read more.
Officials must fear what would happen if people fully understood how biased and corrupt our so-called justice system is Michelle Alexander.
Alexander said in an email the ban was in keeping with a widespread denial of civil and human rights to inmates in American prisons.
It argues that the American criminal justice system amounts to “a contemporary system of racial control”, decades after the abolition of slavery and so-called “Jim Crow” laws that enforced racial segregation.
The newly released records, which were not clearly labelled by state authorities, indicated that Alexander’s book was banned at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton and Southern State Correctional Facility in Delmont. »