Purging religion from prison

Having done some prison ministry, I think I ran into just as more skinhead types who were influenced by so called Christian Identity ideology (occasionally some wierd norse type Aryan religion) than I did radical Islam. In fact the last Muslim I ran into was a very respectful young man, we carried on a several month long correspondence discussion our faith. I know there are muslim converts that become radicalized in Prison, but the christian extremists were there too.

that said, it's a stupid idea. Banning books in my view is always a bad idea. I met young men discovering CS Lewis for the first time. I once borrowed a Strongs Greek Concordance from an inmate to locate a verse to comfort one of his fellow prisoners.

But how can they allow Christian and Jewish religious texts in prison and not allow Muslim texts? To allow one kind of religious text and exclude another sounds like religious discrimination, and I fear it would never hold up in a court of law.

Amy, read the Times story: there is no requirement under federal law for prisons to make religious materials available to inmates. It should be pretty easy to keep Christian Identity material out of prison, and I certainly hope they do. It would be harder to keep Islamic salafist material out, simply because the stuff is harder to spot. But it should be done. I bet bringing Sufis in to advise on which Islamic materials should be let into prison would help.

Prisoners are free to discover whatever religion they choose, provided they choose one of the governmentally-approved versions of divinity.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

If Fr. McBrien disapproves of the lists, they probably represent prudent choices. For Catholics anyway.

Opps -- that last paragraph above should be italicized as well as it is also an excerpt from the article.

"Okay... so ban religious books which advocate violence. And leave it at that! It may admittedly take some brain power, but it can be done. There is even plenty of Islamic literature which does not advocate violence. The more traditional point of view (in spite of the militant's claims) is that violence is only permissible in self-defense, or in cases of unjust government. There are plenty of books along these lines, some very old. And many more which say little about violence at all, but deal with religion and daily life. Which is what most religious sources are about anyway."

AB, you appear to be neither a bureaucratic nor a politically correct idiot.

I would add only that long standing historical texts like the Old Testament, Koran, and Torah, in which plenty o' smitin' was the order of the day be exempt for reasons of simple common sense and courtesy, while more contemporary texts or screeds advocating violence within the horizon of and in the face of a our contemporary common and national consensus for civil peace be forced to take their chances.

I had occasion to visit a client in Cook County Jail a few months ago, and discovered that, among the items that visitors (even attorneys) are forbidden to bring in is reading matter. Talk about the pen being mightier than the sword!

Does anyone out there know anything about the Threshold Program being used as a replacement for "traditional" religious teachings in the prison environment? Can anyone direct me to a substantive web site or literature about this group.

In reviewing some of the literature it seems to be a non-religion religion. I am having trouble getting a backgound on this group. They do not seem to be faith based and other than professing a lot of "journaling" and "group discussions" I can't aget a thread on the basic beliefs or where it/they came from and why the BOP thinks it is the best thing since sliced cheese.

We are facing this issue in our state and it is causing quite a stir. It is making our Chaplains pretty cranky and the inmates too. Cranky in the prison setting is never a good thing. I don't know the rules of this blog but I would really like to hear from anyone who know about this group and can help me decern their motives.

The Threshold Program was offered at the prison camp that my husband is in. It was run by the chaplain as well as 2 other religious leaders from the community. They did do journaling to help them be better upon release and to have a mentor on the outside so that they don't recommit crimes. My husband was put in the program because they know he is no threat to commit a crime upon release. He said most were hand picked. They were also told at the outset that it was similar to the RDAP program to give good time for the completion of the 6 month program. After beginning the program it changed to it should be good for 6 months good time but at the completion there was nothing given for the program. It was presented as a program for those without a drug problem as a way to reduce their time but so far hasn't done anything.