The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation maintains a listing of books banned from circulation among the many state’s 90,000 prisoners. The forbidden books embody “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood and books of work by Leonardo da Vinci and Frida Kahlo, all of which the jail company says “lack severe literary, creative, political or scientific worth.”
It could come as no shock, then, that some authors and publishers query the literary acumen of these of us who function the state’s prisons. The CDCR just lately added one other entry to its record of lots of of “Disapproved Publications”: the memoir of a former prisoner who has devoted himself to serving to others reside significant lives after jail.
The banned e book is “What Kind of Bird Can’t Fly: A Memoir of Resilience and Resurrection,” by Dorsey Nunn and co-author Lee Romney. The state jail company stated that the e book, revealed final yr, was banned as a result of it “presents a severe risk to facility safety or the security of incarcerated individuals and employees.”
Heyday Books writer Steve Wasserman, who introduced the e book to print, stated a CDCR lieutenant instructed him there have been three scenes within the 368-page e book that the company objected to. One tells of an inmate making a weapon. Another recounts the dying of a guard, which didn’t contain Nunn. The third describes how Nunn as soon as “traded in marijuana.”
Why would jail officers be shocked by such scenes in a e book about jail life and past? More importantly, Wasserman famous in a letter of protest, the ban ignores the repudiation of violence embedded in “What Kind of Bird Can’t Fly.” Nunn writes how, “with every dehumanizing act of aggression or transgression, I received nearer to turning into a person I by no means wished to be.”
Reviewers have referred to as Nunn and Romney’s e book “inspiring,” “highly effective” and a “page-turner.” It describes how Nunn’s function as an confederate within the homicide of a Hayward liquor retailer employee landed him in jail for greater than 10 years. But the e book focuses far more on Nunn’s work over greater than 4 many years to assist different beforehand incarcerated folks.
Nunn stated in an interview {that a} essential second for him got here late in his incarceration on the San Quentin jail, when a guard subjected him to a brutal physique cavity search. He initially thought-about stabbing the guard in retaliation. But then got here a fortuitous go to with legal professional Michael Satris. Nunn remembered the famend reform lawyer asking him: ”’If you try this, do you suppose something will change?’ I stated, ‘Probably not.’ He stated, ‘But if we sue them, we will really change the coverage.’ It was a pivotal second in my life.”
Nunn, who turned 74 on Thursday, would go on to champion many different adjustments. He helped lead the campaigns to “ban the field,” the requirement that these with felony convictions report them on employment functions, usually disqualifying parolees from the very jobs that might assist them keep out of bother. He additionally helped restore voting rights for the roughly 35,000 Californians on parole, by way of the passage of Proposition 17 in 2020.
Nunn stated he discovered extra from different males who had been locked up than he did from anybody else. But he additionally credited books with educating him about regret and reconciliation.
“I learn Malcolm X and he taught me I might be greater than I used to be on the time of my arrest,” Nunn stated. “I learn George Jackson [who wrote ‘Blood in My Eye’ in prison] and he taught me about oppression. I learn Che Guevara and he made me suppose complete societies might be modified.”
The Division of Adult Institutions at CDCR rejected Heyday’s enchantment in late November. A spokesperson for the jail system stated it could not have time by Thursday to reply to a query in regards to the banning of Nunn’s e book, together with queries about different puzzling books on the banned record, just like the World War II survival story “Unbroken” and “The Kite Runner,” the acclaimed novel about life in war-torn Afghanistan.
Romney, an award-winning journalist, referred to as the suggestion that Nunn’s e book would make prisons much less safe “absurd.” She stated banning the e book “denies these contained in the partitions a profoundly empowering message about what energetic therapeutic and true regret entails: a lifelong dedication not simply to self enchancment however to neighborhood constructing.”
Today’s prime tales
Shelter resident Liliana Leyva brings Thanksgiving meals again to her room together with her kids Isaac, 3, and Amariz, 8, on the Woodland Hills Family Shelter.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
L.A. County households at risk of homelessness
California is hammered as nationwide job cuts attain a five-year excessive
- Job cuts throughout the nation are the very best they’ve been in 5 years, with California employers saying 173,022 job cuts from January to November, up almost 14% from the identical interval final yr, based on agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
- The tech business led the state in job cuts, saying 75,262 this yr.
Trump calls affordability a ‘con job,’ in the meantime Democrats push for reasonably priced housing plan
What else is occurring
Commentary and opinions
This morning’s should reads
Other should reads
For your downtime
Children benefit from the occasional faux snowfall subsequent to the Santa meet-and-greet at Sawdust Winter Fantasy in Laguna Beach.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Going out
Staying in
Question of the day: What do you put on if you fly?
Scott Eadie stated, “I at all times put on good blue denims (no gaping holes) and a button down shirt. The shirt will need to have a pocket so I can stash my earbuds conveniently when not in use.”
Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response would possibly seem within the e-newsletter this week.
And lastly … your photograph of the day
Lula of the band Kim Theory performs the guitar on stage through the band’s EP Release Party at Backyard Party on Nov. 15, 2025 in Pasadena.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Today’s nice photograph is from employees photographer Ronaldo Bolaños of the band Kim Theory taking part in at Backyard Party, a brand new all-ages music venue on the border of Pasadena and Altadena.
Have an important day, from the Essential California workforce
Jim Rainey, employees reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
June Hsu, editorial fellow
Andrew Campa, weekend reporter
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
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