Book Ban in Prisons; what do you think?

United States
June 10, 2007 4:40pm CST
A recent news article details how prisons, due to prompting following 9-11, have now banned a number of religious texts from their libraries. The hope is to keep offenders from having access to potentially inflammatory religious texts while in prison. What do you think of this practice?
2 people like this
2 responses
lauriefnp
@lauriefnp (5109)
• United States
10 Jun 07
This is stupid! I assume that it's the Muslim texts that are being prohibited? What gives the government the right to say which religions are "inflammatory" and which are not? The Muslim religion itself is a peaceful religion. It's the radical sects of the religion who are terrorists and a danger to society, just as it is the radical groups of any religion who are "inflammatory". I think this is wrong. If they are going to ban one religion, then I would think that they would have to ban all of them. You can't discriminate and pick and choose.
faerybeach
@faerybeach (55)
• United States
10 Jun 07
Actually, they can. It's a prison. I'm not saying it's right, just stating facts. It's not a public library. It's a library for convicted felons. Thanks for your response!
tallpaulno44a
@tallpaulno44a (1574)
• United States
10 Jun 07
Who is going to decide what is "good" religion and what is "bad" religion? The warden? The governor? If they are going to ban books in prisons it should be on a more tangible standard than religion.
faerybeach
@faerybeach (55)
• United States
10 Jun 07
As far as I understand, it's mainly Muslim texts. Their reasoning behind it stems from 9-11 so I would assume that's why. I believe our government is making the decisions on which texts. Considering it's been almost 6 years since 9-11 and it's taken them this long to start pulling books, it seems like someone has been working on this for a long time. Honestly though, they are in prison. They gave up a lot of their freedoms when they committed a crime. I would feel a lot better if TV, for instance, was banned! Thanks for your response.