There are certain books the people who run prisons have deemed too dangerous for the people locked inside.
From a list of 1,600 titles the Salem Reporter obtained, the Oregon Department of Corrections has “banned dozens of introductory technology and coding books.”
The ban includes introductory and how-to books such as Windows 10 for Dummies, Microsoft Excel 2016 for Dummies, and Google Adsense for Dummies, an introductory book on how to monetize websites with advertising.
The Oregon Department of Corrections cites security as the reason for banning these educational books on using computers. Windows 10 for Dummies has been banned for the reason that the “Information would create clear and present danger.” Many other computer related books are banned with the explanation that the book is “material that threatens.”
Oregon isn’t the only state that engages in censoring the information that prisoners have access to. For years, state prisons around the US have banned books that teach programming: Ohio, Michigan and Kansas just to name a few.
Photo: ‘Piles of Books” by Michael Coghlan is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
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