Dallas County jail banned physical books and magazines. A prisoner rights publisher says it's illegal
Dallas County jail banned physical books and magazines. A prisoner rights publisher says it’s illegal
Prison Legal News alleges the jail’s near-total restriction on printed publications violates a 2007 federal consent decree — and the constitution.
By Tracey McManus,Staff Writer Aug 15, 2026
The exterior of the Lew Sterrett Justice Center on April 13, 2020 in Dallas.
Juan Figueroa/Staff Photographer
The most secure federal prison in the country allows incarcerated people to receive books and magazines mailed in by publishers. So do county jails across the U.S., including in Texas’ Bexar, Collin, Tarrant and Travis counties.
In Dallas County, jail officials have put “a near-total ban” on printed literature, violating a 2007 federal consent decree where they agreed Prison Legal News publications were permitted mail, the outlet alleges in a motion to reopen the case.
Prison Legal News’ subscription magazines and books are not among the reading materials available on the jail’s electronic tablets. In 2022, the jail updated its handbook to limit deliveries of physical magazines, paperbacks and newspapers only to incarcerated people in housing units without tablet access.
The motion alleges tablets are in every Dallas County jail housing area except the restricted and medical units, leaving virtually no place where the physical materials are allowed. The jail also returned Prison Legal News' mailings as recently as this year with a stamp stating “Effective March 14, 2022 books, publications and periodicals will no longer be accepted," making it unclear how materials are getting anywhere inside.
The prisoner rights publication has asked a federal judge to find Dallas County in contempt of the 20-year-old consent decree or to allow discovery to determine if the county is unable to comply due to legitimate operational concerns.
The motion filed by Prison Legal News’ publisher, the Human Rights Defense Center, is centered on the county’s alleged noncompliance with the 2007 consent decree but states the nonprofit is filing a separate civil rights lawsuit with constitutional claims.
"This should be alarming to everyone that either likes to read or believes in free speech," said Paul Wright, editor of Prison Legal News.
Sheriff Marian Brown did not respond to requests for comment from The Dallas Morning News. The county has not yet filed an answer to the Aug. 6 motion to reopen the case.
The Supreme Court has held that jails and prisons may restrict publishers’ communications with incarcerated people when the limits are reasonably tied to legitimate correctional interests, considering factors like security and operations and availability of alternate means of communication. Wright alleges Dallas County fails that constitutional test and violates what it promised a federal court it would do in 2007 by making its materials inaccessible.
The Center’s two magazines, Prison Legal News and Criminal Legal News, run stories about prison conditions, the death penalty, access to counsel and other topics. It also distributes soft-cover nonfiction and self-help books.
Prison Legal News sued Dallas County in 2007 alleging free speech and due process violations after the jail under then-Sheriff Lupe Valdez banned magazines and newspapers “to eliminate clutter,” according to the complaint.
The county settled that year by entering the consent decree, which states Prison Legal News’ materials are permitted mail in all Dallas County jail facilities.
It wasn’t the first challenge. A group of incarcerated people sued Dallas County in 1971 over a litany of jail conditions like overcrowding, medical care and censorship. As part of a seven-year federal oversight order, a judge prohibited jail officials from destroying books and magazines unless they posed a safety hazard.
“They've been on this losing battle for over half a century to ban publications – it’s almost pathological,” Wright said.
The defense center has challenged roughly 80 similar policies in jails and prisons over the years, winning almost all of them, Wright said. In September 2025, the organization checked on jails where it had consent decrees by mailing outreach materials as tests. The Dallas County jail returned its books and magazines with the stamp saying the materials were no longer accepted.
The center wrote Brown and County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins a letter stating the ban was “unconstitutionally censoring publications in violation of the consent decree.”
The county did not respond, according to the motion. It's unclear how the jail gives physical magazines, paperback books and newspapers to people in housing areas with no tablet access, as the handbook states, when it also returns the publications to senders stating they are no longer accepted.
The handbook directs ordinary mail to a Florida processing center to be scanned onto incarcerated people’s tablets and destroyed. It separately says, “No physical books will be accepted.”
After another letter, representatives of the Defense Center met with jail officials four times this summer.
According to Wright, jail officials declined to accept any soft-cover books and only offered to scan the organization’s magazines into incarcerated people’s tablets.
Wright said this is unworkable due to copyright concerns and no guarantee that incarcerated people have consistent access to the tablets.
The jail handbook states tablets are rewards for good behavior and could be taken away as discipline. Wright said he could not get a straight answer from jail officials on how incarcerated people would receive the tablet scans to comply with the consent decree, leading him to ask the court to reopen the case.
"To say that these people are opaque is an understatement," Wright said.
The consent decree required Dallas County to provide notice of every mail rejection with a statement indicating the reason for non-delivery. Wright said this did not happen for at least 149 mailings rejected between September 2025 and July 2026.
Aug 15, 2026
Dallas County Reporter
Tracey McManus joined The Dallas Morning News in October 2024 and covers Dallas County government. She previously spent nine years as a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times in Florida and five years as a reporter for The Augusta Chronicle in Georgia. Tracey is a graduate of the University of Florida with degrees in journalism and Spanish.