US prisons ban 'staggering' number of books: activists

Los Angeles (AFP) - Tens of thousands of books are banned from US prisons, a new report said Wednesday, including a primer on drawing, a book about tying knots and textbooks teaching inmates foreign languages. Prison authorities across the country cite vague "security" fears or worries over sexual content for their bans, which prevent some of America's 1.2 million inmates from reading often innocuous-sounding texts sent by friends, campaigners, publishers or bookstores. A study by PEN America, a literacy and free expression advocacy group, found widely differing and often inconsistently enforc...