Biased Banning of Media in Arizona Prisons

In late 2017, officials in the Florence, Arizona State Prison Complex confiscated an inmate’s incoming mail on the basis that the two religious books and six CDs were banned materials from state prisons.

The Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) oversees all publications mailed to prisoners confined within the facilities. Department Order 914 (DO 914), the manual on the rules and regulations surrounding inmate mail, gives officials the authority to censor or confiscate mail based on a number of banned categories. Media including physical albums, TV shows, movies, as well as printed material such as books, magazines, newspapers and more are reviewed against a set of standards banning sexual references, depictions of gangs, drug paraphernalia, among other things.

Edward Lee Jones Jr. had requested a number of rap and R&B albums, including “untitled unmastered” by Kendrick Lamar and music from The Weeknd and Snoop Dogg, as well as two books by Elijah Muhammad, a former leader of the Nation of Islam.

In the case of the CDs, prison officials cited the music contained lyrics that are sexually explicit, violent, and gang- or drug-related, which gave them the authority to confiscate the albums under DO 914. The books were confiscated under DO 914’s provisions on material which contains “racist” ideas or advocate “religious oppression.”

Jones, a Black man and practicing Muslim, took the case to court, arguing not against DO 914 directly, but that its censorship authority was being applied unfairly and unevenly. The banned materials are being argued together, but under entirely separate defenses. The banning of religious material falls squarely against American ideals and rights to religious freedoms, as Jones argued he needed the books during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Music arguments were directed under Jones’ free-speech rights, unfair enforcement against certain populations, and overly broad and unreasonable policies.

Easha Anand, Jones’ legal representative, told Phoenix radio station KJZZ that prison officials have an obligation to apply the regulations neutrally under the First Amendment. She explained that at the same time that Jones’ materials had been banned, other inmates were “allowed to watch violent TV shows like ‘Dexter,’ read James Patterson books that describe rape, and listen to country music songs about cold-blooded murder.”

The incoming music that is being banned in Arizona prisons is, as Anand explained, “namely rap music and R&B music – both of which happen to be quintessentially produced by Black artists.”

A district court ruling threw out Jones’ claim that the confiscations violated his rights to free speech and worship. The case was then taken to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where a three-judge panel reversed the ruling of the lower court, citing several failures in the earlier determination.

Anand said that the District Court ruling claimed Jones had “other alternatives” like country music. Calling the statement “dangerous,” Anand explained that “any of us would say that country music is not an alternative to Kendrick Lamar…Music that feels like the right form of expression for you is not interchangeable.”

Kendrick Lamar's cultural importance to America and to Black Americans cannot be ignored. Widely regarded as one of his generation's most influential rappers, his 2017 album "DAMN." would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first-ever non-classical or non-jazz album to do so. The Pulitzer Prize board described the album as "a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life."

The case will now move back to U.S. District Court, where Jones’ lawsuit can proceed against the officials who confiscated his materials.

The ADC, and DO 914 in particular, was re-examined in courts just a few years ago. In 2019, U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver stated in her ruling that the order “violates the First Amendment on its face.”

The 2019 case surrounded specifically the DO 914’s definition of sexually explicit materials. Plaintiff Prison Legal News, a publication with a majority of subscribers incarcerated, found several of their issues were being censored by the ADC.

The “sexually explicit” material in question? Prison Legal News issues with reporting on sexual assaults and rapes that occurred in the prison environment.

Lisa Ells, legal counsel to Prison Legal News, told KJZZ that “verbatim quotations of legal decisions that were reported in this publication were redacted.” Ells continued: “If the Arizona Department of Corrections feels like it can censor this publication when it’s quoting court cases, then it also feels like it can censor what the courts can say or what prisoners can read about their legal rights in the prison system.”

Prison Legal News is one of very few ways inmates can get information about cases that may apply to them, as Paul Wright, executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center, the publisher of Prison Legal News explained to KJZZ. Wright does not think that the prison officials “actually, in their heart of hearts, believe that we are pornographic,” but rather that the ADC is using DO 914 “as a pretext to try to censor us and prevent prisoners in Arizona from learning what their rights are in the event that they are sexually assaulted.”

Outcomes of the Prison Legal News Case

Judge Silver’s ruling pointed out various media that would be banned under the sexually explicit provisions of DO 914, which would include “articles about the persecution of the Yazidi people by ISIS, articles about the Me Too movement, Maya Angelou’s ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,’ a New Yorker book review of a scholarly biography of Sigmund Freud, a Mayo Clinic newsletter that contained a medical illustration of a hernia, and self-portraits by former President George W. Bush.”

In late 2019, KJZZ obtained from the ADC a spreadsheet with more than 5,000 publications, including books, magazines and CDs that are banned in Arizona prisons. A selection of titles in just the As includes entries such as "Amazing Card Tricks,” “A Concise History of India” and "A Brief History of Bali,” “A Practical Guide to Linux,” “Anatomy, Stretching & Training for Yoga,” “Architectural Digest” and “Arizona Highways,” a monthly magazine published by the Arizona Department of Transportation.

And that is a minute selection of banned publications beginning with the letter “A.” There are many more “A” entries and 25 more letters in the alphabet with equal or more banned media. Prisoners in the state of Arizona cannot access this information, cannot learn or enjoy what is inside the publications. They cannot read, listen, or watch these banned titles, cannot connect with the rest of American society over shared experiences obtained through the media.

Beyond the legalese of what exactly is being argued in Jones’ case, against which court precedence, whose authority, fundamental rights, ADC regulations and so on, Jones’ experience, unfortunately mirrored by so many other incarcerated Americans, calls attention to yet another failure of the U.S. prison system.

Though Jones’ case has taken many years to move through the courts, it has drawn much-needed legal awareness to DO 914’s unfair policies. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision affirmed the issues of banned materials in Arizona prisons can no longer be ignored. The fight continues so that one day information, culture, history, art and entertainment can be accessible to all, jailed or free.