The books banned inside Victoria’s toughest prisons revealed

Victorian crime books and raunchy magazines are among the toughest to smuggle into the state’s maximum security prisons. See what’s on the blacklist.

Victorian crime books like Underbelly and infamous racist manifestos are among the toughest to smuggle into the state’s maximum security prisons, with raunchy magazines also heavily blacklisted.

Books with violent imagery or filled with tales of inmates and their criminal activity are not allowed inside maximum security facilities like Barwon, near Geelong, where some of the state’s most hardened criminals stew inside.

A former Barwon inmate told the Herald Sun while crime texts had a way of getting inside, books with stories of local crime figures were among the hardest to smuggle in.

“All government prisons ban any Victorian crime books obviously because they contain stories about some of the people who are locked up at the time,” he said.

“But this does not mean they don’t make it through the cracks because they most certainly do.

Books depicting violence or extremist views are among those banned from Victoria's maximum security prisons

“When I was up at Barwon I had more crime books than the library but there are certain ones that never make it through like any of Underbelly books or Leadbelly.

“Books like Mein Kampf are definitely banned but also books like the Art of War by Sun Tzu and War and Peace.

“Also any bikie magazines (are banned), so no Live to Ride at all.”

Underbelly: The Gangland War and Leadbelly were co-written by Walkley Award winning crime journalists Andrew Rule, of the Herald Sun, and The Age’s John Silvester.

The books are true accounts of Melbourne’s gangland wars and feature heavyhitters like Carl Williams, who was infamously beaten to death within the walls of Barwon Prison.

Rule said he “couldn’t complain” if prison authorities did not let the Underbelly books inside their jails.

“I’m fairly happy that most of those guys have read them at home because when police raid crooks in the last 20 years, one of the things they usually find is a collection of Underbelly books. I’m not sure if that is a medal or a scar but it’s true,” he said.

Hard cover books are also not allowed at Barwon without approval from an operations manager.

Blacklisted magazines at Barwon included People, Cosmopolitan, Live to Ride, and old copies of Cleo and Zoo — as well as any war magazines.

Publications that contain video game violence are also not allowed in.

“Barwon Prison will not accept magazines which contain any erotic pictorial or media representation of male or female genitalia or women’s breasts, military articles, drugs, hydroponics or home brewing, weapons, bombs, tattoo publications or publications which support terrorism,” a statement on the Corrections Victoria website says.

And family and friends of inmates dropping off property at Barwon can only deliver two books at a time.

Likewise any “R-rated publications” are not permitted inside the state’s top women’s prison Dame Phyllis Frost which houses underworld matriarch Judy Moran and alleged mushroom killer Erin Patterson.

The Herald Sun understands while there is no diffinitive list of banned titles for Victorian prisons, all publications delivered are checked thoroughly before being passed onto inmates.

Crime books or magazines depicting violence are particularly difficult to smuggle into Barwon prison Picture: Alison Wynd

Meanwhile visitors heading into Loddon prison near Bendigo are not allowed to bring in newspapers like the Herald Sun, The Australian, The Age, the Australian Financial Review or the Bendigo Advertiser to loved ones because they are sold at the prison shop.

Other “local or ethnic” newspapers not sold in the prison shop can be brought in.

A Corrections Victoria spokeswoman said all books were assessed on a “case-by-case basis”.

“Any books that incite violence or promote extremist ideologies are considered contraband in Victorian prisons,” she said.

Originally published as The books banned inside Victoria’s toughest prisons revealed