Texas Inmates Deserve "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

  • by: Rebecca G.
  • recipient: Lorie Davis, Director - Correctional Institutions Division, TX Dept. of Criminal Justice

Good grief.

The Texas Department of Corrections has just banned 10,000 books — including a pop-up version of the children's classic A Charlie Brown Christmas — from libraries at correctional facilities in the Lone Star State.

- Also banned: the 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple and the bestselling book Freakonomics.

- NOT banned: Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf; two books by former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke; or Bret Easton Ellis's gory serial killer novel American Psycho

But the policy isn't just arbitrary — it's also counterproductive. James LaRue, the director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association, told The New York Times that:

"All too often, prison censorship, in addition to being an arbitrary abuse of authority, denies the incarcerated the chance to get out of jail and stay out."

You can take a stand for Snoopy and the rest of the gang — along with the important benefits that can come from encouraging reading. Urge the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to lift its ban on A Charlie Brown Christmas and thousands of other books.

Please sign my petition now so these inmates can have a happier holiday season. Your signature will help spotlight the issue of prison literacy and build public pressure to convince Texas officials to revisit their senseless book-banning policy.

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