What are your thoughts on the recent ban of some religious books in prisons?

Question

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/topstories_story_161144628.html

Inmates Sue After Prisons Ban Religious Books
The removal of the books is occurring nationwide -- part of a long-delayed post-Sept. 11 federal directive designed to prevent radical religious texts, specifically Islamic ones, from falling into the hands of violent inmates.

Three inmates from Otisville filed a lawsuit over the policy, saying their Constitutional rights were violated. They say all religions were affected -- Islamic prayer books, Christian books, and ancient Jewish texts were among those removed.

Feldman said the study was made out of a concern that prisons "had been radicalized by inmates who were practicing or espousing various extreme forms of religion, specifically Islam, which exposed security risks to the prisons and beyond the prisons to the public at large."

"The presence of extremist chaplains, contractors or volunteers in the BOP's correctional facilities can pose a threat to institutional security and could implicate national security if inmates are encouraged to commit terrorist acts against the United States," the report said.

Answer 1

All forms of religions are radical if they stem from the middle east .
That area spawned religions of a war like nature .
With a murderous God who made man his target .
Some of the eastern religions blame natural events like volcanoes and earthquakes as coming from a God or Gods but often teach peace and higher learning and understanding as a way to receive rewards in the next life .

While the religions that came from the Middle East region all
seem to have extreme violence and lack of tolerance fostering the idea that transgressors of Gods law should be killed by the sword or burned as an offering or stoned for transgressing the laws of God .

These laws have become part and parcel of the Christian religions today which have a bloody history of violence .

As a jailer I would end all religious practices as they tend to foster delusional states of reality .

If you ever saw the movie with Jimmy Stewart and the pooka
you would understand . Stewart plays a lovable kind well mannered man who believes a 7 foot rabbit is his pal .
Well any sane person knows this to be a delusion but for stewart it is completely real .
In the movie they show the pooka but in real life we all know that no such creature exists . Even as kind as Stewart is and giving and carring to walk around in a delusional state of thinking is considered unthinkable and those people need to be under lock and key .
Many people today know that God and religion are created by man .
Thus all religion tends to make adjusting to reality difficult for people in prison .

God helps those who help themselves is the only rational statement I have encountered from reading the bible several times . Imagine teaching people to be poor and serve God and their master and their reward is in the next life .
Only sounds good if you are not a slave .
Imagine being told to kill all the men and women who have known men and take the young boys and virgins to be your slaves .
What kind of God is that .
This leads people to violence ,killing ,and wars .

Most of Jesus followers felt the end of times was at hand and to this day every generation feels that it is living in those times .
I am afraid that this creates a state of mind which allows one to justify his actions . To blame the devil ,to say you where possessed by evil and not responsible but that you are now ok .
Please ,please ,please lets end this once and for all and begin to teach people to assist one another and lets end all the killing .
This life is all you get and you better be kind and loving and work for what you want in this world with others sharing the bounty of this great planet . Greed has no place or a feeling that one is superior to another .

Answer 2

They should be educating these inmates and giving them a college education while in prison. This has been proven to actually reform inmates and get them on the right path to productive citizenship once they leave prison. I could care less if they have religion in the pokey or not. It is their right, however and they should have the right to study religion as well. Religion obviously can create more problems in such a tight environment like a prison. I mean, just look at the world's tensions with religion in the way of peace. An education would be much better for the prisoners though, in the long run.

Answer 3

This is the same as the crazy Christians who try to get books banned like Harry Potter banned for school libraries. How does it feel to have books banned. Christians are more famous for complaining about books is school and public libraries than any other group of people.

Simple solution: Stop the banning of all books. Can Christians handle that?

Answer 4

I recently read in the book, "God Is Not Great: Religion Poisons Everything" that our govt distributed Wahabi-translated Korans into US prisons. Wahabists are bin Laden's cult, and their translation is vicious, inaccurate, and designed to justify the murder of non-muslims. (Whereas, on this matter, Mohammed actually said - you have your religion and I have mine.)

But why are all the books being removed? Was the concern about the Wahabist books just a pretext to remove more books? Suppressing books inevitably reminds me of the Third Reich.

It's also a potentially huge concern you've brought to our attention, because the US incarcerates more people than any nation on earth http://www.newstarget.com/021290.html

Is this a way not only to take the votes of more and more people, but now to remove the right to obtain information from more and more people?

Odd, isn't it, we incarcerate more than anyone, but now our crime rate is soaring. Could it be because we are incarcerating marijuana smokers by the millions?

http://members.tripod.com/~ronmull/marijuana.html

Perhaps none of it matters anymore, comrade, as Bush has declared himself dictator of the US - http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html

I used to note, with great alarm, the striking similarities between the bush regime and the third reich, in their amazing propaganda techniques. But, more and more, it's more like the soviet union here. From babies in day care - with mothers at war, no less - to five hour waits at the DMV (used to be 20 minute wait here, until the car tax was cut), to crumbling bridges, to torturing prisoners, to disappearing suspects....

What is going on here?

That's for taking the time to post this.

Answer 5

It's bogus. If you ban one type of book, it sets the precedent that banning inflammatory books is acceptable. As long as we're defining inflammatory, we could also ban any books at all, since one could argue that allowing an inmate to learn at all increases the chance of his becoming smarter about any number of bad things. Suppose he starts reading a how-to book about kickboxing? Couldn't he use that against a guard?

You either have complete censorship, or none at all. There's no middle ground here. In the interest of being civilized, we can't censor at all. Prison is hard enough as it is. They've already been sentenced. We don't have to make it pleasant, but we certainly don't have to go out of our way to make them miserable. Morale is important in a prison.

Answer 6

It is disturbing. Denying anyone the chance to find God (and therefore redemption) is denying them an opportunity to better themselves.

Particularly disturbing is the fact that "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" by Harold S. Kushner is on the list. That book is singularly responsible for bringing many people back to God, including myself after a crisis of faith.

Those who radicalize any religion should be dealt with on an individual basis. Punishing those who are trying to turn their lives around by denying them the resources to do so is counterproductive.

Answer 7

I hope the banned the Doris Day hair styles for the modern girl

Answer 8

religion beliefs can cause frictions among inmates, and is not a good idea as it polarized carceral population against each other (making clans). Also prison is not really a place for finding a new religion... And personally, I am not sure religion can change the twisted mind of a natural born criminal...

Answer 9

Personally, I don't think inmates need to have time to read. They need to be cleaning highways on chain gangs, or planting crops. I'd remove televisions too, or at least only let them watch reruns of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood or Captain Kangaroo.

These religious texts are just full of too much racy and violent stuff. They're all just chock-full of smiting and begetting.

Answer 10

Screw 'em. As far as I'm concerned, when your imprisoned for breaking laws, you've lost all rights until you're free. If religious books are being used to promote radicalism, remove them and be done with it.

Give them old Superman comic books.