North Carolina Prisons Lift Ban on ‘The New Jim Crow’ Following ACLU Letter

RALEIGH – Today the North Carolina Department of Public Safety announced that it would remove The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness from a list of books banned in state prisons.

The announcement comes one day after the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina sent officials a letter demanding that they immediately rescind the ban and review the entire list of banned publications.

Chris Brook, Legal Director for the ACLU of North Carolina, offered the following statement:

“We appreciate the prompt response and are glad that officials have agreed to review the entire list of banned books, as they should. We will continue to safeguard the First Amendment rights of people incarcerated in North Carolina. Everyone in our state would do well to read The New Jim Crow so that together we can work to undo the racial injustice that permeates our criminal justice system.”