Of the 10,000 books banned in Texas prisons, jailbreak classic 'The Count of Monte Cristo' not one

The 10,000 books banned at Texas prisons includes modern day classics like "The Color Purple" and "Memoirs of a Geisha." Swipe through to see other well known books that were banned. The 10,000 books banned at Texas prisons includes modern day classics like "The Color Purple" and "Memoirs of a Geisha." Swipe through to see other well known books that were banned. Photo: Amazon Photo: Amazon Image 1 of / 38 Caption Close Of the 10,000 books banned in Texas prisons, jailbreak classic 'The Count of Monte Cristo' not one 1 / 38 Back to Gallery

Literary classics "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "Escape from Alcatraz," which tell the fake and true stories of men escaping from prison, were not included in a massive list of books banned in Texas prisons.

The list, obtained by the Dallas Morning News, has stunned the literary world for how arbitrary it seems.

While books like "Where's Waldo? Santa Spectacular" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" were banned, Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" was not.

WHAT MADE THE LIST: It's Banned Books Week. Which books are challenged or banned most often?

Some of the criteria used in banning books was whether it contains details on manufacturing explosives or weapons or it contains sexual imagery. Books with a binding or cover that could be used to smuggle in contraband were also banned.

"Material that a reasonable person would construe as written solely for the purpose of communicating information designed to achieve the breakdown of prisons through offender disruption" were also banned, stated the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's policies.

James LaRue, the director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association (ALA), felt the list was a disservice to Texas' prison population.

"The common denominator of people in prisons is illiteracy," LaRue told Chron.com Thursday morning. "The problem isn't that they're reading too much. By withholding these books in an arbitrary fashion, they are discouraging people from reading which is the one thing to get a person out of jail and to stay out of jail."

Since 2010, the ALA has been working to raise awareness around lists banning books in U.S. prisons. In a proclamation titled "Prisoners Right to Read," the ALA believes that the suppression of ideas does not prepare inmates for life outside prison.

This perspective was also shared by Anthony Graves, a death row exoneree now living in Houston.

"It's basically up to the administration which books they want to ban," he said. "It think this is just another form of punishment because they get to pick and choose what books they let in."

He agreed that books offering maps or detailed descriptions of how to escape should be banned.

Graves, who spent 18 years behind bars before charges were dropped in 2010, recently penned a book himself, due to be released in January.

Making sure his death row memoir, "Infinite Hope," would be allowed inside the system was one of his considerations in writing it.

"I made sure that it wasn't very controversial, that it was just the truth," he said. "The truth should never be banned."

To read the Houston Chronicle's complete story, visit here.

Fernando Alfonso III is a digital reporter at Chron.com. You can read more of his stories here and follow him on twitter at @fernalfonso. If you also like surreal GIFs and Polaroids, go here and here.

