PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona has banned prisoners from reading a book that discusses the impact of the criminal justice system on black men.
The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on the Arizona Department of Corrections to rescind a ban on "Chokehold: Policing Black Men."
The book by former federal prosecutor Paul Butler examines the treatment of African American men by law enforcement and in mass incarceration.
Butler says his publisher was notified of the ban in March. But it didn't specify what led to the decision.
The Georgetown University criminal law professor says he explicitly disavows violence in the book.
Corrections spokesman Andrew Wilder said the department hadn't yet received the ACLU's letter asking for the ban to be reversed.
ACLU attorney Emerson Sykes says it's not uncommon for states to ban certain books.
