Along with Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), which is illegal due to copyright issues, this is the only American film banned from release for reasons other than obscenity or national security. 'Titicut Follies' was filmed inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Bridgewater, a prison hospital for the criminally insane. After the Commonwealth of Massachusetts sued the filmmakers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the film constituted an invasion of inmate privacy and ordered the withdrawal of the film from circulation.
Titicut Follies was not banned completely by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The final decree of the Suffolk Superior Court EQ. No. 87538 said it could continue to be screened, but only for audiences comprised of the medical or legal community, specifically naming Legislators, Judges, Lawyers, Sociologists, Social Workers, Doctors, Psychiatrists, Students in these or related fields, Organization(s) dealing with the social problems of custodial care and mental infirmity. Wiseman would rent the film to people who signed a statement of intent that they would limit the audience to those allowed.
In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The harrowing film so disturbed state authorities that they had it banned for 24 years.