Texas DCJ censors the truth of trauma survivors
- Doug Hathaway
- Jan 15, 2023
- 1 min read
“On the heels of great work by @MarshallProj showing TX prisons ban thousands of books, we’ve just received a rejection from TX DCJ for Tiny Beautiful Things by @CherylStrayed. This, too, is a censorship trend: prisons conflate ‘sexual content’ with advice about handling trauma.”
On the heels of great work by The Marshall Project showing that Texas prisons are still banning thousands of books , we’ve just received a rejection from the Texas Dept of Criminal Justice for Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed.
This book is a collection of advice columns by Strayed, who also wrote Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail. According to the rejection notice, this book was banned because of alleged “indecency with a child” on pages 4, 5, and 89. As you can see from page 5 (attached to this post), the “indecency with a child” is actually a matter-of-fact account of the author’s experience. It was never intended to be salacious or provocative, any more than any self-help book could be. Unfortunately, rejection notices like this are all too common: prisons conflate “sexual content” with advice and solidarity about handling trauma, and unjustly deprive incarcerated readers of opportunities for help and support.
