Car News

You may remember a story I reported on about a year ago (http://
www.theescapist.com/blog/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=5&postId=125),
in which a prison inmate named Kevin Singer claimed that his first
amendment rights were violated when prison security confiscated his
Dungeons & Dragons books. Prison officials claimed that the game was a
threat to prison security because the format of the game, with a
Dungeon Master and a group of players, was an analogue of gang
leadership. Misconceptions about how the game is played - that the DM
gives the players orders that they must carry out, and that players
see the DM as an authority in disputes outside of the game - seemed to
be the basis for their concerns.

On January 25th, the seventh circuit of the United States Court of
Appeals handed down the decision recently, "concluding that the
popular role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons ("D&D") represented a
threat to prison security…" Prison security confiscated 21 books, 14
magazines, and handwritten notes from prisoners. So, it's official -
Dungeons & Dragons is too dangerous for prisons in Wisconsin.

It's easy to dismiss this story by saying "They're inmates, and don't
deserve to play any games at all." Many who commented on the earlier
story did exactly that, in fact. But that isn't the issue of concern
here. Whether or not inmates deserve to play games is one issue - but
singling out a game as a threat to prison security based on bad
evidence, and ignoring all evidence to the contrary, is a real
problem. This is a decision that can be used as leverage in other
places as well. If a paranoid parent wants to see a D&D group removed
from a school or library in the future, you can guarantee that this
decision will come up.

Read the full court ruling here: (PDF -
http://abovethelaw.com/_old/2010/01/26/Singer%20v.%20Raemisch.pdf).
Geeks are Sexy has a lot more on the decision (http://
www.geeksaresexy.net/2011/01/25/dungeons-dragons-a-threat-to-prison-security/#)
, and the story even got a bit of coverage on the Fox News website
(http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/26/dungeons-dragons-threatens-
prison-security-court-rules/#).

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