Article: Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries
Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries.
The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the shelves of any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of approved resources. In some prisons, the chaplains have recently dismantled libraries that had thousands of texts collected over decades, bought by the prisons, or donated by churches and religious groups.
Full article text from today's New York Times.
Comments
I'm not sure how to feel about this. I don't like any kind of censorship, however, these people are convicts, and rights are taken away when people do bad things as punishment. Convicted felons can't even vote after they're released!
Posted by: Woeful | September 11, 2007 10:42 AM
Woeful - do we really want punishment to include not being able to seek spiritual enlightenment? The question is, what do we as a society stand to gain from the felon's punishment? Do we gain anything by taking away these rights?
And the right to vote is not taken from all felons. That is a matter that is handled on a state by state basis.
Posted by: Proletarian Librarian | October 30, 2007 02:40 PM