FEDS SAY NO FANTASY FOR FELONS

[CPanthersfan]

Heard this from RPG Examiner:

A man serving life in prison for first-degree intentional homicide lost his legal battle Monday to play Dungeons & Dragons behind bars.

Kevin T. Singer filed a federal lawsuit against officials at Wisconsin's Waupun prison, arguing that a policy banning all Dungeons & Dragons material violated his free speech and due process rights. Singer was sentenced to life in prison in 2002 after being found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide in bludgeoning his sister's boyfriend to death with a sledgehammer.

According to the ruling, Singer (33), was a devoted gamer since childhood. Prison officials banned gaming material in 2004 after an inmate sent an anonymous letter expressing concern about Singer and three other inmates forming a "gang" focused around playing the game.

Seriously? A gang? A prisoner sent an anonymous letter about concerns over a gang forming in prison? Does anyone else find that ludicrous?

After the ban went into effect, prison officials confiscated all gaming material in Singer's cell, as well as a 96-page adventure. Singer was told by prison officials that he could not keep the materials because Dungeons & Dragons:

 

    "…promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling."

 

This issue isn't new. Each state has its own regulations for what is and isn't okay to send a prisoner, and sometimes it seems the rules are enforced at a whim. For example, a copy of Dungeon magazine was sent back to Paizo Publishing because the product contained maps.

In the July 2007 issue of Dragon Magazine, then Editor-in-Chief Erik Mona, had this to say about prisoners who game:

 

    "We get letters asking for campaign advice, letters apologizing for implicating D&D in crimes committed in the 80s at the height of the gaming scare, and letters with questions, criticisms, and praise of the latest issue-or sometimes an issue from months or even years ago. Almost all of the friendly, hand-written letters praise the positive impact DUNGEONS & DRAGONS has made on their lives. These men are extremely bored, and D&D offers them a brief respite from their dull punishment."

 

The reaction to Dragon Magazine embracing gamer-prisoners was extreme. Paizo's message boards and letter columns declared that prisoners shouldn't have access to games…or anything fun at all. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with that sentiment, stating that the prison's policy was reasonable and did not violate Singer's rights:

 

    "After all, punishment is a fundamental aspect of imprisonment, and prisons may choose to punish inmates by preventing them from participating in some of their favorite recreations."

 

The question here is the purpose of incarceration. If you feel the sole purpose of the prison system is to punish people without any hope of rehabilitation, then you probably agree with the court's ruling. The court seems to feel that you should have no escape in prison, not even a mental escape. The problem is that prisoners do not live in a vacuum, and their punishment is felt by their family, friends, and children. This hardnosed approach is corrosive to society – unless we're about to start mass executing these prisoners, we have to deal with their hearts and minds. Even if they're condemned to life in prison.

On the other hand, if you feel prison should not only separate prisoners from society but also help rehabilitate them so that they can be reintegrated, the ruling is misguided. Mona guessed that there were thousands, if not tens of thousands, of prisoners playing Dungeons & Dragons. For a group with a lot of time on its hands, role-playing games can be a healthy outlet. Gaming brings a host of useful skills to the table, including math and language.

I think Mona put it best:

 

    "The reaction struck me as utterly without compassion, and I think part of my disconnect has to do with all the prison mail When all you know about prison comes from dirty jokes and Oz, it's easy to villify prisoners as a homogenous mass of evil, but getting all these letters—reading their honest pleas, their thanks for a hobby we all share and love—going through that experience has personalized the issue for me."

 

I agree.

[Arthurrosewood]

Like every issue, there are always two sides. D&D hysteria has been around since I started playing the precursor to D&D- Melee back in the early 70's. Yes,I'm that old. Of course for every 9 normal groups like ours , there is always one fringe group who goes ape and gives the game a bad name. I remember college students playing under the streets in the sewers and one student got lost and died  of over-exposure. The problem with D&D is that we have no positive press image. If D&D is ever to survive this type of brow beating, we must have more positive press than negative. We have to show that is a way to keep kids off the street and away from trouble. My three kids( 2 girls and a boy) grew up playing fantasy games with their "adopted brothers". They are now happily married and have children of their own which as they get older, their Pap will probably teach each of them about fantasy games. I agree it doesn't seem fair to ban D&D from the prisoners but again we may not have the whole story.  

[CPanthersfan]

Yeah, good point.  :/

[Dwarmij]

 While not a gamer as long John, only been at it since '84, I've still been at it a fair piece. It's been my personal experience that the "nutso gamers" usually have a problem separating reality from fantasy in the first place. These are the same people that if they didn't have issues with role playing games would probably think that song lyrics were trying to tell them to do things, or that T.V shows were.
 In my area, north west Missouri, the problem has always been more a religious based one. Stuff like this.

http://www.chick.com/articles/dnd.asp

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

Without having ever experienced the games they're talking about for themselves people think, just because someone like this says so, that we are all gathering around the kitchen table with a bunch of dice and books to engage in occult practices. Now, I don't know about you guys, but I for one have never uttered an incantation during a gaming session the entire time I've been playing.  The closest anyone in any group I've ever played in has ever come is, " I cast Magic Missile".

[Auggie]

Pretty much the same for me, I did play a Truenamer for awhile, that uttered her spells in Klingon, not typical, but, I never saw, or participated in anything demonic, or occult-like, either during a game, or some other time.