I have not heard about this. It seems like there must be more to it. If not, this is awful!
Peace!

Interesting. Prisoners should have the right to read about religion and other mythologies and superstitions.

These people are in jail, that means they don’t have the same basic rights are other Americans. Too bad that you aren’t allowed to read whatever you want on the tax payers dollar.

I agree. Prisons should be sure there are no books that espouse violence, extremism, that kind of thing, but really, is tossing out every Bible, Quran, Torah, etc. really going to do any good? If anything, I think this could be bad overall; more prisoners wind up changing their ways through religion than worsening, after all.
God bless.

A couple of my first thoughts have been expressed above. These folks are in jail, and have correctly lost their rights.(hey, they are getting free room and board). First amendment says “…..no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibit the FREE exercise there of…..etc.” These folks have violated someone else’s rights, thus they are incarcerated. Sorry folks, no sympathy here.
Wonder if this will change the amount of the ” I Found Jesus” conversions that happen to some prisoners.
Mark Earley, of the Christian group Prison Fellowship, thinks it is overkill…of course he does, because he wants HIS books left in the library. Just remove the books on Islam. Now that would be fair! NO!

Joey:
“Prisons should be sure there are no books that espouse violence, extremism, that kind of thing.”
The Bible certainly isn’t violence free….
Are some religious books permissible and some not? Fairness says they all go. Really shouldn’t start “selecting” whose religion is OK and whose isn’t.

As one who has often been involved in holding services in prisons, I must tell you that the books are not there at the expense of taxpayers. The books are donated by the people who care enough to come in and hold services and talk to the prisoners and offer them some hope to change their lives.
Throwing out all the books because of Islamic extremism is overkill. Yes, prisoners have lost their rights, at least some of them, but taxpayers pay for TV and cable service, so prisoners should be allowed to have access to books including religious books if they desire. Some of these books do not even belong to the prison; they have been brought to the prisoner by friends and family.
I have no problem with prisons censoring books and weeding out the ones that do advocate violence against others. But the Christian books donated by those of us who hold services in prisons do not advocate violence, militancy or crime. In fact, they are just the opposite.

WC:
Just curious, do the families bring bibles? This is not a violence free book. I’m sure many of the different books don’t advocate violence, but again, religious books are just that, and some are not better or worse than others. Selecting whose religious books are to come in with families or other ways is a large task. Easier to prohibit all of them. Could get into a discussion of what constitutes a “religious book”.

Did anyone of you go into the NY times and read this entire article?? Doesn’t sound as though you have. The spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, was speaking for the “Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department”. The Justice Dept. really wanted consistently available information for all religious groups to assure reliable teachings as determined by reliable subject experts. How do you pick reliable subject experts to make everyone happy? Does this sound like protecting against terrorist attacks by religious groups? Not to me it doesn’t….it sounds like controlling how people should think. Another Chaplain said, because chaplains routinely reject any materials that incite violence or disparage, and also donated materials, these already had to be approved by prison officials. Prisoners can buy religious books, he added, but few have much money to spend. Another Chaplain who has worked more than 15 yrs. in the prison system, said at some of the penitentiaries, guys have been studying and reading for 20 yrs., and now they are told that this material doesn’t meet some kind of criteria. It doesn’t make sense to them. They’re asking, ‘Why are our tapes being taken, why are our books being taken?
The chaplains in the prisons are the ones removing these books because they are being ordered to. A Chaplain has said that many of the chaplains say these are not the things they would have picked to get rid of. Others say that have seen the list of accepted books, these are not enough. There isn’t one book on the list of Rev. Schuller. The accepted book list has a bias toward evangelical, popularism and Calvinism, and lacked material from early church fathers, liberal theologians, and major Protestant denominations. The last time I looked none of these people who wrote these books had destroyed buildings and humans. This is invading the freedom of religion that our country guarantees all men and women. I don’t remember having read that prisoners lose their rights to religion because they have violated the law.
Douglas Laycock, a professor of law at the U. of Michigan Law School, said once they say, ‘We’re going to pick 150 good books for your religion, and that’s all you get; the criteria has become more than just inciting violence’. They’re picking out what is accessible religious teaching for prisoners, and the government can’t do that without a compelling justification. It sounds as though all Religious leaders are baffled at the selections from this article in NY Times. In many prisons the books are disappearing, but the prison doesn’t have the money to go and buy the approved books, even. Some planning. The only thing they are leaving alone are the prayer books, somethng to be thankful for. Question where are these discarded books going to??

Freedom of worship is not a civil right. It’s a HUMAN right. Which means unless the prisoners are practicing human sacrifice or ritual incest, the government has no business whatsoever meddling with their religions.
Pagansister, would you really appreciate it the government drew up a list of acceptable religions, and YOUR religion wasn’t one of them? I thought not.
Peace!

mystery poster #8:34 PM 10 Sept.
Religion is a HUMAN right? Since when?
All I’m saying is if the gov’t wants to take religious books out of the prisons, they should take them all, instead of trying to select which stay and which go, which religion is good and which religion is bad etc. I’m certainly not in favor of censorship, but then the folks in jail aren’t necessarily due any favors. Has “religion” actually changed anyone in jail? Many times I think the claim of being “saved” is a ploy. (often wondered what they were being saved from)

This really is a strange day.
One of the very few times I have disagreed with pagansister…..perhaps the first time. And, low and behold a day that I do agree with Widsors Child…although there have been others…unfortuantely, not many.
I do not see any reason to deny prisoners religious reading materials unless the so-called reading religious matierial is specifically calling for violence.
Peace!

I’m in favor of Justice for everyone. I don’t know why each and every person is in jail. Some many not deserve to be there. We’re hearing many stories of late on people being released because of new evidence that our science is enabling us to find. Some deserve their punishment. They have only so much time alloted to read, and if they chose to find answers to life in religious books, and want to use that time for this, why not? Yes, religion has changed people in jail and out of jail, and in which way is not our place to judge. There should be checks for beliefs that encourage killing of people who don’t agree with their religious beliefs, and a committee could be used to weed these out, without a book purge. Here’s a good example of conservative brain processing in action.

JohnQ:
A question…and no, I’m not against non-violent religion in prisons. This article is saying religious books are being pulled as a way to prevent recruiting terrorists. All I’m asking is: Who decides which books are permissible, not promoting violence etc.? The United States gov’t (just for the Federal prisons or all?), each state’s gov’t, or each state’s dept. of corrections or each separate prison?? Just who is going to review all the books? So rather than try for years to decide this, just pull all of them.
However I still say that prisoners don’t have the same rights as other folks. They forfeit their rights when they are convicted of a crime.

Some people here are wrong for the right reasons, and some right for the wrong reasons. Everyone deserves the right to worship as they please. And every religion is riddled with both good lessons and violent ones, even mine, Paganism. Did Pagans not sacrifice to please the gods?? Did the Jews not, and did the Christians and Muslims not kill in the name of God/Allah?? But did Paganism not teach peace and inner reflection, Christianity to love thy neighbor, and Islam that the greater struggle was to better oneself? I would certainly love someone who has been to prison for something to better themselves with a higher thought process, be it Christiantiy, Islam, Paganism, Athiesm, or the Flying Spagetti Monster. I have MET people who stopped a cycle of criminal activity through religion or a similar form of thinking.
Peace, love, and wisdom to all
Phoenix

I wonder how prevalent the conversion of prisoners to militant religious groups has been. If it happens often enough to try to deal with it, this might be one somewhat effective means of doing so (I wonder how many of these prisoners spend their time reading). And if you are going to replace some religious books it’s by far simplest to replace them all.

I used to work in the justice system and then later did volunteer work in a women’s prison.
Being convicted of a crime does not take away all of someone’s civil rights. Many remain in place, such as due process, right to counsel, and several others. The right to freely practice one’s religion is also not one of the rights that is abrogated. The primary right lost, in the case of a felony conviction, is the right to vote. (along with the obvious right of freedom of movement.) Misdemeanors do not carry this penalty.
As a volunteer, I saw that books were donated from outside groups and the prison itself did not spend a dime of tax payer’s money on them. In addition, they are already censored for things like sexual and violent content. So, it seems like censoring religious texts that promote violence would only be an additional step with some texts. The main religious texts, the Bible, the Torah, the Qu’ran and several Hindu texts that I’m aware of all have violent episodes or injunctions in them. The sticky wicket would seem to be how to allow anyone’s “Holy Book” in without condoning the advocation of violent acts based on them.
As far as the suggestion that all books should be removed as “punishment”. Having seen the inside of jails and prisons in the course of work, I can assure you it is plenty punitive. The question is do we want to add to the guards’ work load and, in some cases, danger, by adding more boredom and religious restrictions to the mix?

I don’t have an easy answer for who decides which books stay….however, I am sure there is a practical way to make it work.
If even only a handful of people are helped by reading such books…it is worth it.
I believe that every religion has something to offer. And, prisoner have a lot of time to contemplate life, truth, etc.
Peace!

The problem with US telling inmates “they committed crime therefore cant have basic rights.. ” is, they have been restricted from SOME rights because of wrong doing.. but we cant take some basic freedoms from them. Freedom to have and practice religion is ONE of those. one singular idea within many religious points of view is REDEMPTION.. or buying back that which is lost.. broken or useless. OUR intentions of putting some one IN prison.. is not just a HOLDING TANK till they get out and DO it all again.. and BETTER , because of the TRAINING the other inmates give them. IT s to retrain them to NOT REPEAT their mistakes. THEY should have full recourse to any form they wish , in order to do exactly that.. have that possibility to grow PAST THE PAST.. and learn from it. idle hands are the devils play thing.. some have said.. meaning.. Give them some thing positive to do, besides make TOILET WINE and learn better break in’s or how to make SHANKS. IF any form of Christianity or Judaism or Islam is found wrong.. or they personally can be found to be IN SIGHTING issues.. restrict that and leave YOUR religious bigotry to yourself.. and not splash it all over the net. FREEDOM is TO BELIEVE or NOT. allow those who do believe alone.. and those who don’t too. We are to have freedom OF religion.. and FREEDOM FROM IT , but you must have BOTH to have CHOICE. separation of state and church is not separation OF CHURCH FROM STATE but of state from CONTROLLING CHURCH. this is another example of STATE OVER STEPPING ITS BOUNDS.

Reading is dangerous.
People who read learn things expand their horizons, and begin to expect more of themselves, the people around them, and of the world. Sure, 90 percent of everything printed is – well, it rhymes with “trap”. But that ten percent is hard to discover. Usually, it is worth it to allow people to wander through the 90 percent, so they will recognize and value the 10 percent when they get to it. Drawing up an approved list of religions is a literal contradiction of the letter and intent of the Constitution. It is very risky no only to allow people to read, but to help them learn to read. But that risk usually has the greatest payoff. Kepp the cr – “trap” in the libraries, and let people discover its worthlessness. When they start to proclaim prison conversions it won’t be difficult to see who is genuine and who is scamming.
Reading is dangerous. And in the words of that great detective and crime fighter, Darkwing Duck, “Let’s get dangerous!”

The article stated, “to avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups”
From what I’ve read, Christianity (or rather, those who use its name, much like murders who use selectively chosen Islamic ideologies to excuse their violence) has spurned many gangs and Clans of its own in prison. And I’m sure we’ve heard of the White Supremacists mutilating and distorting the beliefs of a certain pagan faith, much to my chagrin. It is a wide ranging problem all around.
Removing access to religious texts from the prisons seem to be a knee-jerk reaction to the superficial excuses for continuing violence – religion – while ignoring the underlying and prevailing cause; a failing rehabilitation system, overcrowding, almost non-existent safety for anybody who does not join a gang, and a ramped drug-culture fueled by the hopelessness of those behind bars.
The irony of the situation is that, while these “extremists” and “militants” use Religion as an excuse for their violence, the prison system has also used Religion as an excuse in ignoring the faults of their own system.
The article did not mention, but I assume prisoners are still allowed to keep personal copies of religious texts? I’d hope so.
I have not yet done volunteer work in the prison system, although I’ve been invited to help introduce inmates to music through a harp program, I’d like to imagine that most people can grasp a second chance and turn their lives around. Faith can be one way to do this. The good that Faith can do in the prison system, when properly used with guidance and compassion, must far outweigh the potential for some people to abuse it. I find it sad to consider that prison officials have decided to embrace Fear over Reason.

“The main religious texts, the Bible, the Torah, the Qu’ran and several Hindu texts that I’m aware of all have violent episodes or injunctions in them. The sticky wicket would seem to be how to allow anyone’s “Holy Book” in without condoning the advocation of violent acts based on them.”
They all need updating. Really. And it would be pretty easy if so many people didn’t give them all that undeserved credibility.

Random thought: Bibles are going to be taken out to prevent violence, but prisoners will still get cable TV. Oy.
God bless.

“Reading is dangerous.”
Oh Jestrfyl, truer words were never spoken! Why, reading could lead to thinking. And thinking might lead to……………… who knows what! Thanks for another light-hearted profound thought, kind sir.
What some haven’t considered is that, although some folks will read a book and unthinkingly believe whatever it says, others will read the same book and label it nonsense.

Inmates need things to do. men who dont keep busy are dangerous men. they need to go back to chain-gangs and have more work programs. they need more education programs.
a prison is a place where we put someone to change them. without the right tools they will never get better- only worse. if we really dont want them to improve why are we keeping them alive is a live evil-doing, dangerous, angry, bored (which is the same as dangerous), hateful, never changing man better than a dead man? there are things worse than death. these men languishing in cells doing nothing but learning to be better criminals (b/c we dont teach them more worthy things) are just a dangerous to society as the gang-bangers and drug dealers and killers out in public.

nnmns,
you are as pushy with your atheism as any religious person has ever been. i always feel condemned by you.

“What some haven’t considered is that, although some folks will read a book and unthinkingly believe whatever it says, others will read the same book and label it nonsense.”
Flakey
That is quite true. That is why we need to encourage wider reading rather than restrict reading to narrow parameters. One of the tasks an inmate needs to learn is who is the better authority. This applies to writers as well as gang leaders, politicians, and clergy. Reading allows a person to practice this without catastrophic consequences. Helping them learn who is trying to take advantage of them and who is genuinely trying to help would be key to new lives. Reading, especially guided or discussed reading, can help with this. The principle I employed in my earlier posting is called Sturgeon’s Law (from sci/fi author Theodore Sturgeon). The 90 percent that is cr – uh, “trap”, is not truly authoritative, but the other 10 percent is worth considering. Helping anyone learn the difference in invaluable.

Gina-
“nnmns,
you are as pushy with your atheism as any religious person has ever been. i always feel condemned by you.”
Oh my! Do you not feel secure in your faith?
As a Christian I have not been offended by any of nnmns’ posts. To me they usually seem well thought out, interesting, and thought provoking.
Joey-
I agree with your thought on tv.
Peace!

i am absolutely secure.
but he has many times spoken about how pushy (tho i’m sure he used other words) Christians (and other faiths) are. i simply point out the hypocracy of that statement when atheists are much the same.
to feel condemned does not in any way lessen one’s faith. feelings may be hurt, but they remain unchanged.
he is very intelligent and yes the statements are thought provoking. and in no way do i wish him to stop speaking, but i will also not stop pointing out how his statements are no less harsh absolutes than statements made by religious extremists.

As a victim of violence, I must comment…
“I do not see any reason to deny prisoners religious reading materials unless the so-called reading religious matierial is specifically calling for violence.”
Um, the ‘good’ book DOES call for violence…
“they shall surely be put to death” has been applied to a select group of “sinners” all too often.

The Bible has an enormous amount of violence — I spent the past year reading the Old Testament for a class. The Koran is noted for its promotion of violence against unbelievers.
I’m not sure how to combat recruitment by extremist Wahabi Muslims in prison, anymore than I am sure how to combat recruitment by the Aryan Brotherhood. Perhaps a panel needs to carefully review legitimate religious works in order to screen out the extremist literature. However, there is a little issue of Freedom of Speech that could get in the way.
Perhaps excluding any modern literature that advocates violence against the others, realizing that historic literature is a different kettle of fish, would be a start.

if you dont give imprisoned men something to believe in, they lose all hope. a human being with no hope at all is more dangerous than before. they are willing to risk it all b/c they have no care for anyone or anything. even if the thing they believe in is learning itself, it’s something.
you could take away the religious books from me and i’ll just continue to believe in them. if you deny me learning i will onl find somthing else to learn. in prison that usually means learning how to become a better criminal. they sit around and talk about their crimes. and they give each othr pointers on how better to commit them next time.

Well, how about if anyone decides to take up religious extremism while in prison, we say OK– but they have to agree to treatment based on the religion of their choice. So, if Mr. Armed Robbery decides to become a strict Muslim, then he can be punished under Sharia law. Anyone subscribing to a religion using the terms “they shall surely be put to death” has to abide by that, and give up any notions of appealing their death sentences. Hindus can ponder the illusion that is the material prison in which they are trapped and hope for better luck in the next life, while Bhuddists will understand that all is suffering no matter where they are. Haven’t quite figured out how the other religions can cope… feel free to make suggestions

Joey,
I share your “OY!” about leaving nothing but TV for inmates distraction.
If we start screening all of the violence in reading material, they will be left with the old Dick & Jane stories (not even Reader’s Digest or MAD magazine would make the cut).
If we heavily restrict the use of the exercise areas they will get lethargic.
If we remove nutritional meals they will get fat.
So how is that beneficial to anyone – to have illiterate, mindless, lethargic, dumplings barely existing at public expense. Instead, we need to find ways to help the inmates improve their situations, and the first thing is to encourage them to read, eat better, and exercise. Yes, there is incredible violence in all of the religious material. But it is always countered by passages of beauty and inspiration – which only seem so BECAUSE of the contrast with the other passages. Most people who rise to this challenge do well.

“nnmns,
you are as pushy with your atheism as any religious person has ever been. i always feel condemned by you.”
Gina, there are very few of us doing this while there are literally billions of dollars spent of promoting various versions of Christianity. So some of us keep at it as we can. But I’m sorry you feel condemned by what I say; it’s some of your beliefs I would condemn, certainly not you.
JohnQ, thank you. I appreciate that.

There’s so much philosophy that has come up here and so much more that’s possible. What do we want prisons to accomplish? Revenge? Make a solid citizen? Get them out of the way? Make them, at worst, harmless? Rarely, I think, has an answer been made and more rarely still has it been kept for very long.

“there are very few of us doing this ”
Every atheist i’ve ever met has been militant about their “non”beliefs.
Certainly i’ve met militant religious figures. i have no fancy for them either. how can it be ok for a small group to do something if it’s wrong for a large group? isnt what’s good for the goose good also for the gander?

sorry that is my comment before- forgot to put my name on it.
“it’s some of your beliefs I would condemn,”
i AM my beliefs. i would not be who i am without them. they are as much a part of me as my blood or skin. so by condemning one, you condemn both.

Freedom to read, freedom to follow or not to follow a religious belief, freedom of speech, all of freedoms that we are guaranteed by our constitutional rights. These freedoms are being fought for at the present time, men and women are dying to protect these rights and have done so for how many years.
The government has already intervened into prayer and Bible use in our schools, and look what price we have paid for that!
Now the government is intervening into an area where a person’s freedoms have already been taken away as punishment for their crimes.
How much can they defend themselves from this?

“Every atheist i’ve ever met has been militant about their “non”beliefs.”
Highly unlikely. What I think you mean is that every atheist you know who is able and willing to identify themselves as an atheist has been militant about their non-beliefs.
For a lot of my life I didn’t want to make waves and just kept quiet except to close friends. A lot of atheists would probably be worried about hurting their job prospects or even having their families hounded if their non-beliefs were known by the wrong people. I expect you know some atheists that you don’t know are atheists.

“i AM my beliefs. i would not be who i am without them. they are as much a part of me as my blood or skin. so by condemning one, you condemn both.”
So you want your beliefs to be sacrosanct; no one is to be able to say anything bad about them because it would hurt your tender feelings? You’ve come to an area where we are free to speak, so I urge you to either get tougher or go to some boring place where people only speak in platitudes, your favorite platitudes.

“i AM my beliefs. i would not be who i am without them. they are as much a part of me as my blood or skin. so by condemning one, you condemn both.”
Sorry if it seems I’m picking on you, but you are surely more than your beliefs. Either you got to your beliefs through some process or they were inflicted on you and you had no alternative.
In the second case, you owe it to yourself to look around at other beliefs; the world is full of them and you can probably come up with some new ones yourself. You might easily find you like other beliefs better than the ones someone poured into you.
If you got your beliefs through some process of your own, you were more before you settled on them than you are now. Then you were open to evidence, now you are afraid of evidence. Then you thought, now you cling. You can, again, be a thinking, exploring person.
You may be about to say I’m wedded to my beliefs, but it’s not true. I think the evidence for a god is minimal and for any particular god it’s vanishingly small. But I’m open to being convinced there is a god; in fact I’ve suggested ways a god could probably convince me. They all consist of big, gaudy, public displays so I know it’s not just a mental problem of mine, but they are all things any really powerful god could do if it was interested in being believed in. And it would surely bring around a lot of doubters and people who take their religion with grains of salt.

Judy-
“”
What price is that?
Peace!

Judy-
“The government has already intervened into prayer and Bible use in our schools, and look what price we have paid for that!”
What price is that?
Peace!

Judy:
What price have we paid for Not assuring the separation of church and state in the public schools? Nothing that I can see. Want a bible and prayer in school? There are Christian schools, Catholic schools, Muslim schools, etc. all private. If it is that important, there are places for the prayer and bible, as well as other holy books. Not in the public schools. Or just “take a kid to church, mosque,temple etc.” every holy day.

You had some good points that prisoners unable to read what interests them ,could use their time to get into trouble, instead. The books that have been removed in some prisons haven’t even been replaced with the approved ones, because the prisons haven’t got the money to buy new ones. What a botched idea from the word go.
I know what you mean by your faith being part of you, mine is part of me, too. Don’t let the opinions of posters bother you. You know what you believe, if they can’t get it, so what? Just remember the brain-processing studies that we talked about here.

The 8:17 post of mine is for you Gina.

to Judy,
Taking prayer out of the schools has noting to do with how the children are. today. No one can stop a person from prayer. They can prevent your prayer from being inflicted on others.
The major problem leading to the violence in this society is the lack of discipline in the schools and the home. I am a teacher in an inner city school. we are a select school not a neighborhood one so that means the students are tested before being excepted so in theory the “cream of the crop”. If these kids are the cream of the crop we are in serious trouble. They fight, steal, talk back ,and are extremely rude to almost all adult including their parents and to each other. It is a daulting task to educate someone who thinks they know everything and huff at you when corrected. It makes you wonder why you teach. The prisons hold a lot of the same personalities. If parents would hold their children accountable for their actions, not blame the school, the teachers, their neighborhoods. I have kids who come from the poorest of homes yet the parents demand respect and their children are.
If we added a quarter of the bad these kids do we got a swat on the butt. We knew it would be coming and acted accordingly. The kids today can trash a classroom and maybe get suspended to watch tv all day for the offense.
Religion isn’t the be all of anything. Maybe the prisoners need to be given self help books, or learn to draw, paint etc books to enrich their stay. Then perhaps they can have something to show for their time or have something to sell as restitution to their victums

you owe it to yourself to look around at other beliefs”
i’ve looked thru many beliefs. i came to my faith on my own. i was an entirely different person before i did. so when i say i AM my beliefs. i mean that they created who i am. without them i would still be the other unhappy unfulfilled person.
and to whoever posted “So you want your beliefs to be sacrosanct; no one is to be able to say anything bad about them because it would hurt your tender feelings? You’ve come to an area where we are free to speak, so I urge you to either get tougher or go to some boring place where people only speak in platitudes, your favorite platitudes.”
as i said before- i in no way want nnmns to stop talking (or expressing his beliefs) i was trying to point out how pushy atheists who are complaining about pushy Christians are pretty hypocritical. as to being offended- i’m offended every day- i get over it. i dont ask people to not offend me (i’m not so fragile as all that). but again was trying to point out that when someone says “no offense” and then says something offensive… well… that a little silly.
k, i have to be done with this topic- it isnt even what the original topic was. so i’ll just be avoiding this site for a while- i apparently cant stop myself from getting into arguements. i’m sorry nnmns that the things i said sound so harsh (i’m sure they are harsh), i can be a harsh person. which is why i dont ask that you stop being who you are either.

nnmns,
In your posting of Spet 11, 3:32 I think you naled the fundamental problem with this issue and all of the issues with incarceration i America. We do not have a clear sense of purpose. Therefore we simply truck anyone who violates a law to jail, simply to get them out of the general population. Reformation is not the same as penance (that share the root of penitentiary). For some, jail is simply a time out (as with Otis from Mayberry). For others it becomes their permanent home. Until we clarify the purpose and are honest about our intent jails will forever be breading grounds for increased violence, refined criminal technique, and a literal cul de sac (bottom of the bag) for many people. The readng material concern is simply the seagull dropping on the iceberg that is heading right for our ship of society.

Ooh, a curious misspelling in my last posting.
“breading” should obviously (I hope) be “breeding”. And yet, does not the rising action of the yeast accomplish the same thing as what happens in a jail? Unintentional poetry ? – I wish.

I have two points:
1.I find the use of the word “purge” very interesting. If the government can purge the libraries of the prison system, how long before they decide to purge public and college libraries? Purging libraries is one of the signs of the rise of fascism. What’s next public book burnings? Heil Dubya!
2.Societies are judged by the way they treat their weakest and most vulnerable members including the elderly, children, the handicapped and like it or not … prisoners. Being found guilty of a crime does not strip one of the right to worship God. The right to worship as one sees fit is not a right that can be taken away when someone is incarcerated — religion is a human right endowed by the Creator, taking it away by purging prison libraries of “objectionable” texts is at least as criminal as the acts the prisoners have committed.

I am the son of a librarian, and the brother of two librarians. I grew up in libraries and one of the ways I decide if a community is a good place to live is by visiting the libraries before I make a deposit. I have paid enough overdue fines (librarian’s families get few favors and less mercy) to payoff many library mortgages. So I know whereof I speak. “Purge” is library-speak for going through and removing books that do not circulate, are too worn out to keep, or simply no longer worth keeping. I know it sounds more like a bulemic’s diet strategy, and to some people it may be just that offensive. This may one of those times. Sure I would love to purge material to which I object from public library shelves. I would even like to purge a few voliumes from our church library shelves. But it is important that a range of values, insight, and interpretation of information be available. I suppose the key is knowing what material is being donated and then volinteering to help the inmates understand what the author is saying and where thye might find alternative opinions. Simply tossing the books is a purge in the worst sense of the word. It negates the responsibility we have toward the very people incarcerated. The may have abrogated some of heir rights, but they are still, even in jail, part of our community.

not to mention that it wont work. taking away the books i mean. anytime in history where a religious group was persecuted it only grew. you try to take away religious books the rebelious human nature will only seek that information harder. the only time we stop caring about that information is when all persecution ends.

Actually Jestrfyl, the meaning of “purge” that I used early on in this article was closer to Frank Chevez’s understanding. When purge came to my mind I thought of Germany and the Jewish books being purged in the 30′s. My family was very library-minded, too. I can remember our old librarian in our grammar school, (It was an extension of our town library ,for all ages). She believed a library should hold all books, approved and disapproved by society, because it was our freedom in American to expect this. I still think of her saying this, and now I really understand why she said it.