In Florida, the list of 20,000-plus banned books includes Nutrition For Dummies and PCs For Dummies. In New Hampshire, the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy makes the list. Texas, which bans nearly 9,000 books, once counted a collection of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets among them. ...

When Jared (who asked to be identified by only his first name) began taking college classes at Turney Center Industrial Complex, a prison in central Tennessee, it was not a love for learning that motivated him—that would come later. Before Turney, Jared had been incarcerated in a private prison. “It’s not very equitable,” Jared shared, reflecting ...