Sunday, January 31, 2010

D&D Banned in Prison

I thought it was interesting on several levels that Dungeons & Dragons has been banned in prison. NYTimes article HERE.

The suit was brought by a prisoner, Kevin T. Singer, who argued that his First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights were violated by the prison’s decision to ban the game and confiscate his books and other materials, including a 96-page handwritten manuscript he had created for the game.

Mr. Singer, “a D&D enthusiast since childhood,” according to the court’s opinion, was sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for bludgeoning and stabbing his sister’s boyfriend to death.

Prison officials said they had banned the game at the recommendation of the prison’s specialist on gangs, who said it could lead to gang behavior and fantasies about escape.

Dungeons & Dragons could “foster an inmate’s obsession with escaping from the real-life correctional environment, fostering hostility, violence and escape behavior,” prison officials said in court. That could make it more difficult to rehabilitate prisoners and could endanger public safety, they said.

RPG discussion boards are abuzz! As the mother of a geek, I've been defending this for quite a long time; however, the prison population doesn't have the most well-adjusted people around, so I'm trying to wrap my head around a gang of D&D players.

3 comments:

the dogs' mother said...

otoh - this guy is sentenced to life - he's not going to be rehabilitated and let go. You want him engaged for that time or finding other avenues to pass the time. I don't know. I think prisons could do a much better job and if they weren't full of drug abusers we'd have more money to do it with.

David Dust said...

That is ridiculous. I played D&D when I was a kid, and it didn't make me want to escape my parents.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Kyle Leach said...

This is a completely ridiculous claim. I was Dungeon Master when I was a kid, and it helped me through very difficult times in my life. D&D seems to constantly get bashed. I just don't understand it.