* The governor received a lot of national kudos for this…

Here in Illinois, we don't hide from the truth, we embrace it. By outlawing book bans, we’re showing the nation what it really looks like to stand up for liberty. pic.twitter.com/4QoN6acB9Z

— JB Pritzker (@JBPritzker) July 6, 2023

* But here’s Gretchen Sterba at the South Side Weekly…

While punchy national headlines announce that Illinois has outlawed book bans, Chicago Books to Women in Prison board president, Vicki White, can’t help but point out that this bill applies only to public libraries, not Illinois jail and prison libraries, or books sent by mail that are regulated by the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC).

In response to the governor’s tweet, White, who has been involved with the volunteer-run nonprofit organization for over a decade, urges the state to incorporate incarcerated folks in Pritzker’s declaration to “stand up for liberty.”

“I would just ask Pritzker to spearhead the same type of action in prisons, and not just prison libraries but prisons in general,” White said. “Because there are the books in the prison libraries, but books from organizations like ours go through the mail room. Another thing that would be excellent would be for an [assessment] to happen from the top; fold in the prison library system into the Illinois library system and [take it] out of the Illinois Department of Corrections…JB Pritzker, I love what you’re saying. Maybe just think a little more broadly.” […]

According to a 2023-updated article by The Marshall Project about banned books in prisons by state, while most of the titles are pornographic, the list also includes books on Asian martial arts, the fundamentals of tattooing, how to write believable fight scenes, and Prison Ramen, which details prison recipes and personal narratives from incarcerated inmates. In contrast, Mein Kampf is banned in Illinois, but inmates are free to read it in Texas, according to a 2019 Illinois Library Association article.

The Marshall Project is here. You can download the full list of banned Illinois prison books by clicking here and scrolling down.

* According to that list, IDOC has apparently reversed its ban on the books highlighted in this 2019 story…

In May 2019, the Illinois library community received an alarming bit of news: Between November 2018 and late January 2019, more than 200 books were removed, censored, or banned from the Education Justice Project library at the Danville Correctional Center, located in East Central Illinois. Among these books were titles such as Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington; Don’t Shoot: One Man, A Street Fellowship, and The End of Violence in Inner-City America by David M. Kennedy, and “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D. […]

EJP students are University of Illinois students, and so also have access to Interlibrary Loan materials from U of I libraries. Students complete loan requests for specific titles or topics of study, and the requested items are provided by the EJP librarian—if the items pass the correctional facility’s clearance process.

* Excerpt from the IDOC policy…

1. Publications shall not be disapproved solely because its content is religious, philosophical, political, social or sexual content, or because the content is unpopular or repugnant.

Publications that meet one or more of the following criteria may be disapproved:

a. It contains sexually explicit material.
b. It is written in code or facilitates unauthorized communication between offenders.
c. It blatantly encourages activities that may lead to the use of physical violence or group disruption.
d. It facilitates unauthorized organizational activity.
e. It overtly advocates or encourages violence, hatred or group disruption.
f. It encourages or instructs in the commission of criminal activity.
g. It depicts or describes procedures for the construction or use of weapons, ammunition, bombs or incendiary devices.
h. It depicts or describes procedures for making alcoholic beverages or manufacturing drugs.
i. It depicts, describes or encourages methods of escape from correctional facilities or provides material that may assist in an escape attempt such as a detailed map of areas surrounding Illinois correctional facilities.
j. The content contains security threat group (STG) material or depictions of hand signs or symbols that appear to be related to an STG and could promote or enhance the image of an STG within the facility or may be interpreted as legitimizing gang behavior.
k. It is detrimental to the security or good order of the facility.
l. It is determined by a mental health professional or counselor to be detrimental to mental health or rehabilitation. Disapproval of publications under this criterion shall be made on a case-by-case basis and documentation of the mental health professional or counselor’s determination shall be provided to the Central Publications Review Committee with the Publication Review Determination and Course of Action, DOC 0212.

* Definition of sexually explicit material…

Sexually explicit material – for the purpose of this directive shall mean any publication that contains pictorial depictions of actual or simulated sexual acts including intercourse, oral sex or masturbation; any publication that by word or picture depicts or describes illegal activity of a sexual nature, sadomasochism, bestiality, sexual activity involving children (whether actual or perceived) or any publication that depicts or describes anything otherwise contrary to law. Publications that contain nudity without additional elements as provided above or publications that provide research or opinions on sexual health, reproductive issues or are scientific in nature shall not be considered sexually explicit.

Except for the illegal stuff, of course, that definition seems pretty harsh, particularly in a state that’s supposedly trying to get away from using prisons as punishment centers.