One man’s art might be another’s pornography ... but Field & Stream?

The list of publications that have been banned from entering state prisons is often surprising:

• A book, “Astral Travel for Beginners.”

• A state-funded tourism brochure prison officials thought advocated insurrection.

• The State Employees’ Retirement Code, on the basis that it was evidence of criminal activity.

Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel said things are going to change.

“I’m making some tweaks to how we do business,” Wetzel told The Patriot-News.

State prison inmates may receive books, newspapers and magazines, but only if they are sent directly from the publisher or bookseller. Even then, each is reviewed by a local committee of employees in each prison.

"We do look at everything," said Sue Bensinger, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman.

Corrections policy makes clear that printed material may be denied if it’s “a potential threat to security, or contains obscene, pornographic or nude content.”

The policy gives detailed criteria — with exceptions — and must be cited when enforced.

“The majority of these magazines are not an issue,” Bensinger said.

What’s more, prisons have library systems and participate in interlibrary loans, she said.

But books and magazines are withheld: more than 2,000 of them between 2008 and 2010.

An edition of the Erie Times-News was barred with no reason given.

The offending front page includes a story that details how a convicted murderer escaped from the State Correctional Institution at Albion inside a garbage can loaded on a truck and then driven outside the prison.

A book of Pablo Picasso’s art was banned, citing the nudity provision of the policy, which allows for exceptions when the material has artistic value. Picasso apparently did not.

A book containing 104 color plates of Michelangelo’s art was also prohibited — not because of nudity, but rather on the basis that it was racially inflammatory or could cause a threat to the inmates and staff.

That raises the question of how arbitrary some decisions might be.

Magazines such as Maxim, Playboy and Penthouse were often barred, which is little surprise. But so too were issues of Men’s Health, Field & Stream and Outdoor Life.

A Patriot-News review of the specific issues barred from entry found discrepancies in prison practice.

The reasons for barring an issue of The New Yorker magazine appeared well-founded.

One page featured a small but gruesomely realistic image of an apparently dead, naked woman half-buried in dirt with a man stalking off into the trees in the background.

The issue also contained an article on “the secret life of knives” called “Sharper.”

No questions there.

Likewise with an issue of Field & Stream containing a multipage feature entitled “50 Skills: Hunt Better, Fish Smarter and Master the Outdoors.” There are instructions on how to construct and fling a bola, sharpen an ax and start a fire with binoculars.

Several issues of Popular Mechanics were banned for similar “manly” features on how to sharpen a knife, how to remove blood stains from fabric and how to “shovel the right way.”

Yet an issue of Outdoor Life was barred based on one offending page, which allegedly offered information on the manufacture of a weapon.

In fact, the page features a full-page painting of a bear.

Another offending page turned out to be an ad for Duracell batteries.

An issue of Field & Stream was barred because an article on how to use Google Earth to improve deer hunting strategy contained a map.

In fact, there is no map except for a small, stylized graphic on an ad for a Bushnell GPS.

Maps are a common basis for withholding material, and for understandable reasons.

An issue of Outdoor Life was barred because a full-page ad promoting the Pennsylvania Wilds contained a small — but accurate — map of the Williamsport area of Lycoming County, not far from the Department of Corrections’ Quehanna Boot Camp facility.

On the other hand, publications that should have been barred because of a map were not.

A brochure promoting the "Scenic Route 6 Artisan Trail" featuring a large map of the entire northern tier of the state was prohibited instead under the policy's pornography section, "where one of the participants is dominating one of the other participants and one of the individuals is in a submissive role or one of the participants is degraded, humiliated or willingly engages in behavior that is degrading or humiliating."

As the reasons were read to her, Terri Dennison, head of the Pennsylvania Route 6 Tourist Association that publishes the brochures, just kept exclaiming “Oh, my God.”

The brochure contains no such material.

Another Route 6 brochure with a similar map was banned because it allegedly advocated “violence, insurrection or guerrilla warfare against the government.”

By that time, Dennison was laughing.

“That’s hysterical,” she said, “and I thought it was just promotional writing.”

The evident sloppiness of prison committees in citing reasons for withholding material could have a darker side.

While a book such as “Identity Theft” is an obvious candidate for exclusion, a book such as “Astral Travel For Beginners” is not, unless the committee believes astral travel is a means of escape.

In fact, the book was prohibited on the basis that it was racially inflammatory or could cause a threat to security.

Nothing in the book supports that claim.

“Protection Spells & Charms” was banned because it was deemed to contain “information regarding the manufacture of explosives, incendiaries, weapons, escape devices or other contraband.”

It does not.

“Wicca for Men” was banned for the same reason.

All three deal with Wicca, which is recognized as a legitimate religion by federal courts but is still subject to some degree of prejudice.

Secretary Wetzel would not discuss specifics. All happened before his watch.

What he did say is things are changing, notably the policy on who has the final say of what gets banned.

Final authority will rest in the policy office, he said, “so we don’t have some cultural stuff at one facility.”

Wetzel said he wants to be sure First Amendment protections are in force.

Each book banning is a decision the department might have to defend in court, and “I want to make sure we can defend it,” he said.

He acknowledged the reasons for decisions aren’t always straightforward.

The nature of inmates are taken into consideration.

“Some [decisions] are real obvious,” Wetzel said. “Some are more nuanced. ... Those are the ones that get you on the front page of the paper.”

Since Wetzel has been in charge, only twice has such a nuance decision been brought to him.

One publication he allowed in, and one he didn’t.

“Sometimes,” he said, “a cigar is just a cigar, and it looked like just a cigar to me.”