From Staff Reports

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Firestorm Books in Asheville on May 8 filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina alleging that the S.C. Department of Corrections violated the rights of state prisoners by not allowing them to receive mailed books that were not from one of six large, for-profit distributors.

The plaintiffs are Firestorm Books, which is billed as a queer and feminist collective; along with the nonprofit Asheville Prison Books and several S.C. inmates.

The backstory of the lawsuit revolves around a clash between prison safety protocols and inmates’ rights to reading materials. 

As for the root cause of the case, in late 2025, the SCDC implemented a strict new policy allowing incarcerated individuals to receive books only from six pre-approved, large national vendors. 

This came after a scheme was discovered involving a former employee and inmate who mailed drug-soaked books to more than 20 inmates across 14 prisons.  

As for the allegations, the lawsuit claims the SCDC rejects, destroys or discards books sent from the plaintiffs’ bookstore simply because they do not come from the state’s six approved corporate vendors. 

What’s more, the collective cited multiple instances where books mailed to prisoners (such as a Buddhist text sent to a monk) were withheld or destroyed without explanation or a right to appeal.