First Amendment? What First Amendment?

Obviously, the Federal government ought to be in the business of putting together lists of approved religious books, and forbidding prisoners to read any others. You got a problem with that?

Comments

[Zanti]

Right. When I wrote "You'd think THEY'D see this as a step in the right direction," I was referring to my own attitude.

It"s basic English, is all.

[Zanti]

It's interesting. The dawkins-style atheists are always calling for the banning of religion and religious texts, yet we're not hearing from them here. Very odd.

You'd think they'd see this as a step in the right direction.

[oldpotsmuggler]

In my experience, atheists are civil libertarians. While it sounds like you may not agree, unnecessary restrictions on freedom and never a step in the right direction.

[kwright]

first it starts with books in prisons. then it will be illegal to even have book. doesn't any body see what's going on here?

[oldpotsmuggler]

The Bureau of Prisons has great latitude, but it must promulgate it's policies and procedures in compliance with The Administrative Procedure Act, and it must comply fully with whatever it says it wants the rules to be. A complete set of general policies is found in The Code of Federal Regulations, and this is fleshed out in directives entitled BOP Program Statements. These are publicly available.

I used to successfully challenge many things occuring in a prison, or within the prison system just by pointing out that things being done were not authorized by rule, or were in violation of rule. BOP employees are really just bureaucrats whose actions are substantially constrained and directed, and they all hate that fact. If someone wants to get on the bad side of the other side in prison all you have to do is just tell them what they have to do, and then be willing to go through all of the hassles involved in forcing the issue. On the other hand, prison offers a lot of "down time".

My sense is that this particular program is not going to make it. At least it would require some federal appeals court to make some changes in what had been considered to be setteled precedent for this to be upheld. However, "prison security" is the universally recognized wildcard, so I wouldn't rule anything out.

Given the level of control that BOP has over who is able to come from the outside for religious instruction and activites, it seems like the whole problem is easily manageable at that point. That and the fact that staff is authorized to inspect any and every item entering the facility. But many of these folks are just average ordinary red necks in their daily lives and don't respect any religion other than their own.

[alkamm]

Perhaps the best source of wisdom anybody could read are the teaching tales of Sufis. Rumi, Al Ghazali, Idries Shah and a host of other Sufi masters wrote simple stories or poems that can program their readers to understand basic flaws in thinking and reasoning in order to grow intuitively into the sort of higher level humans we are designed to be.

Though Sufis have worked through Islam for many years, their doctrines are contrary to fundamentalism. The true exponents of Sufism work to keep their insights current rather than concentrating on texts that may have become inadequate to modern times unless updated with fresh metaphors.

A reading of Sufism should be compulsory to fundamentalists of all stripes because the Sufis argue so presuasively against worshipping fossilized forms of religion.

Anytime government proscribes some religious texts, it is practicing a dangerous fossilization or writing in stone of what it deems acceptable.

[Lon]

What is funny about this is that it is clearly someone's hamhanded attempt to fit with the first amendment. After all, the motivation is to limit books that are likely to turn people into Islamic radicals (and possibly also to limit some kinds of christian neo-nazi tracts). But someone presumably thought that doing that directly would be favoring one religion over another. So they did it in a way that treats each religion equally by giving them the same number of books.

Of course this is nonsense since they favored some schools of thought over others (reformed and conservative jews are pretty much out of luck despite the fact that they lack a radical litterature).

[NewArtz]

Seeing as the "Holy Bible" is absolutely full of the most outrageous atrocities and violence, from genocidal wars to crucificion, it should be removed, right?, seeing as there's no first amendment. Is this the America that right wing Christians dreamed of when they sought to breach the separation of church and state?

[cassandra]

"Haven't got a prayer" takes on a whole new meaning if you land in the hoosegow. Where in hell are we headed next?

[alkamm]

Dostoevsky said we can judge the quality of our societies by the quality of our prison. Many resist making our prisons more humane, but common sense says we should do everything we can to make confinement work on levels over and above the necessary punishment prison uses to rehabilitate its clients. Though I'd argue that living in the worst U.S. prison is better than living in many societies, that's not saying much

Even our best prisons are no day at the beach. So-called country club prisons may have amenities citizens might imagine are too luxurious, but the simple act of confinement is tough enough to break even the toughest CEO or other white collar criminal.

Although many prisoners do not take advantage of prison to read sacred works that might improve their souls, just as many do. To limit the inquiry is simply unconscionable. It's something the Taliban would approve of.

Confinement has its advantages, but limiting what an inmate can read is a powerful step onto the kind of slippery slope which leads to totalitarianism, wholesale and retail, that we purport to fight in the form of Islamic fundamentlism. I'd like to see a copy of those books the prison censor has proscribed!

Tremble any time a government sets up a censor for even the least of our citizens. They tend to spread their good work to the rest of us.

[fact finder]

cassandra, where in hell are we headed now? HELL ON EARTH. does that sound about right.?