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.
Some inmates are outraged. Two of them, a Christian and an Orthodox Jew, in a federal prison camp in upstate New York, filed a class-action lawsuit last month claiming the bureau’s actions violate their rights to the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, said the agency was acting in response to a 2004 report by the Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department. The report recommended steps that prisons should take, in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, to avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups. The bureau, an agency of the Justice Department, defended its effort, which it calls the Standardized Chapel Library Project, as a way of barring access to materials that could, in its words, “discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize.”
Ms. Billingsley said, “We really wanted consistently available information for all religious groups to assure reliable teachings as determined by reliable subject experts.”
But prison chaplains, and groups that minister to prisoners, say that an administration that put stock in religion-based approaches to social problems has effectively blocked prisoners’ access to religious and spiritual materials — all in the name of preventing terrorism.
“It’s swatting a fly with a sledgehammer,” said Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, a Christian group. “There’s no need to get rid of literally hundreds of thousands of books that are fine simply because you have a problem with an isolated book or piece of literature that presents extremism.”
The Bureau of Prisons said it relied on experts to produce lists of up to 150 book titles and 150 multimedia resources for each of 20 religions or religious categories — everything from Bahaism to Yoruba. The lists will be expanded in October, and there will be occasional updates, Ms. Billingsley said. Prayer books and other worship materials are not affected by this process.
The lists are broad, but reveal eccentricities and omissions. There are nine titles by C. S. Lewis, for example, and none from the theologians Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth and Cardinal Avery Dulles, and the influential pastor Robert H. Schuller.
The identities of the bureau’s experts have not been made public, Ms. Billingsley said, but they include chaplains and scholars in seminaries and at the American Academy of Religion. Academy staff members said their organization had met with prison chaplains in the past but was not consulted on this effort, though it is possible that scholars who are academy members were involved.
The bureau has not provided additional money to prisons to buy the books on the lists, so in some prisons, after the shelves were cleared of books not on the lists, few remained.
A chaplain who has worked more than 15 years in the prison system, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is a bureau employee, said: “At some of the penitentiaries, guys have been studying and reading for 20 years, 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 our books being taken?’ ”
Of the lists, he said, “Many of the chaplains I’ve spoken to say these are not the things they would have picked.”
The effort is unnecessary, the chaplain said, because chaplains routinely reject any materials that incite violence or disparage, and donated materials already had to be approved by prison officials. Prisoners can buy religious books, he added, but few have much money to spend.
Religious groups that work with prisoners have privately been writing letters about their concerns to bureau officials. Would it not be simpler, they asked the bureau, to produce a list of forbidden titles? But the bureau did that last year, when it instructed the prisons to remove all materials by nine publishers — some Muslim, some Christian.
The plan to standardize the libraries first became public in May when several inmates, including a Muslim convert, at the Federal Prison Camp in Otisville, N.Y., about 75 miles northwest of Manhattan, filed a lawsuit acting as their own lawyers. Later, lawyers at the New York firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison took on the case pro bono. They refiled it on Aug. 21 in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“Otisville had a very extensive library of Jewish religious books, many of them donated,” said David Zwiebel, executive vice president for government and public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox Jewish group. “It was decimated. Three-quarters of the Jewish books were taken off the shelves.”
Mr. Zwiebel asked, “Since when does the government, even with the assistance of chaplains, decide which are the most basic books in terms of religious study and practice?”
The lawsuit raises serious First Amendment concerns, said Douglas Laycock, a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, but he added that it was not a slam-dunk case.
“Government does have a legitimate interest to screen out things that tend to incite violence in prisons,” Mr. Laycock said. “But 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. Here the justification is, the government is too busy to look at all the books, so they’re going to make their own preferred list to save a little time, a little money.”
The lists have not been made public by the bureau, but were made available to The Times by a critic of the bureau’s project. In some cases, the lists indicate their authors’ preferences. For example, more than 80 of the 120 titles on the list for Judaism are from the same Orthodox publishing house. A Catholic scholar and an evangelical Christian scholar who looked over some of the lists were baffled at the selections.
Timothy Larsen, who holds the Carolyn and Fred McManis Chair of Christian Thought at Wheaton College, an evangelical school, looked over lists for “Other Christian” and “General Spirituality.”
“There are some well-chosen things in here,” Professor Larsen said. “I’m particularly glad that Dietrich Bonhoeffer is there. If I was in prison I would want to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” But he continued, “There’s a lot about it that’s weird.” The lists “show a bias toward evangelical popularism and Calvinism,” he said, and lacked materials from early church fathers, liberal theologians and major Protestant denominations.
The Rev. Richard P. McBrien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame (who edited “The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism,” which did make the list), said the Catholic list had some glaring omissions, few spiritual classics and many authors he had never heard of.
“I would be completely sympathetic with Catholic chaplains in federal prisons if they’re complaining that this list is inhibiting,” he said, “because I know they have useful books that are not on this list.”
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.
Some inmates are outraged. Two of them, a Christian and an Orthodox Jew, in a federal prison camp in upstate New York, filed a class-action lawsuit last month claiming the bureau’s actions violate their rights to the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, said the agency was acting in response to a 2004 report by the Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department. The report recommended steps that prisons should take, in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, to avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups. The bureau, an agency of the Justice Department, defended its effort, which it calls the Standardized Chapel Library Project, as a way of barring access to materials that could, in its words, “discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize.”
Ms. Billingsley said, “We really wanted consistently available information for all religious groups to assure reliable teachings as determined by reliable subject experts.”
But prison chaplains, and groups that minister to prisoners, say that an administration that put stock in religion-based approaches to social problems has effectively blocked prisoners’ access to religious and spiritual materials — all in the name of preventing terrorism.
“It’s swatting a fly with a sledgehammer,” said Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, a Christian group. “There’s no need to get rid of literally hundreds of thousands of books that are fine simply because you have a problem with an isolated book or piece of literature that presents extremism.”
The Bureau of Prisons said it relied on experts to produce lists of up to 150 book titles and 150 multimedia resources for each of 20 religions or religious categories — everything from Bahaism to Yoruba. The lists will be expanded in October, and there will be occasional updates, Ms. Billingsley said. Prayer books and other worship materials are not affected by this process.
The lists are broad, but reveal eccentricities and omissions. There are nine titles by C. S. Lewis, for example, and none from the theologians Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth and Cardinal Avery Dulles, and the influential pastor Robert H. Schuller.
The identities of the bureau’s experts have not been made public, Ms. Billingsley said, but they include chaplains and scholars in seminaries and at the American Academy of Religion. Academy staff members said their organization had met with prison chaplains in the past but was not consulted on this effort, though it is possible that scholars who are academy members were involved.
The bureau has not provided additional money to prisons to buy the books on the lists, so in some prisons, after the shelves were cleared of books not on the lists, few remained.
A chaplain who has worked more than 15 years in the prison system, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is a bureau employee, said: “At some of the penitentiaries, guys have been studying and reading for 20 years, 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 our books being taken?’ ”
Of the lists, he said, “Many of the chaplains I’ve spoken to say these are not the things they would have picked.”
The effort is unnecessary, the chaplain said, because chaplains routinely reject any materials that incite violence or disparage, and donated materials already had to be approved by prison officials. Prisoners can buy religious books, he added, but few have much money to spend.
Religious groups that work with prisoners have privately been writing letters about their concerns to bureau officials. Would it not be simpler, they asked the bureau, to produce a list of forbidden titles? But the bureau did that last year, when it instructed the prisons to remove all materials by nine publishers — some Muslim, some Christian.
The plan to standardize the libraries first became public in May when several inmates, including a Muslim convert, at the Federal Prison Camp in Otisville, N.Y., about 75 miles northwest of Manhattan, filed a lawsuit acting as their own lawyers. Later, lawyers at the New York firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison took on the case pro bono. They refiled it on Aug. 21 in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“Otisville had a very extensive library of Jewish religious books, many of them donated,” said David Zwiebel, executive vice president for government and public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox Jewish group. “It was decimated. Three-quarters of the Jewish books were taken off the shelves.”
Mr. Zwiebel asked, “Since when does the government, even with the assistance of chaplains, decide which are the most basic books in terms of religious study and practice?”
The lawsuit raises serious First Amendment concerns, said Douglas Laycock, a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, but he added that it was not a slam-dunk case.
“Government does have a legitimate interest to screen out things that tend to incite violence in prisons,” Mr. Laycock said. “But 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. Here the justification is, the government is too busy to look at all the books, so they’re going to make their own preferred list to save a little time, a little money.”
The lists have not been made public by the bureau, but were made available to The Times by a critic of the bureau’s project. In some cases, the lists indicate their authors’ preferences. For example, more than 80 of the 120 titles on the list for Judaism are from the same Orthodox publishing house. A Catholic scholar and an evangelical Christian scholar who looked over some of the lists were baffled at the selections.
Timothy Larsen, who holds the Carolyn and Fred McManis Chair of Christian Thought at Wheaton College, an evangelical school, looked over lists for “Other Christian” and “General Spirituality.”
“There are some well-chosen things in here,” Professor Larsen said. “I’m particularly glad that Dietrich Bonhoeffer is there. If I was in prison I would want to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” But he continued, “There’s a lot about it that’s weird.” The lists “show a bias toward evangelical popularism and Calvinism,” he said, and lacked materials from early church fathers, liberal theologians and major Protestant denominations.
The Rev. Richard P. McBrien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame (who edited “The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism,” which did make the list), said the Catholic list had some glaring omissions, few spiritual classics and many authors he had never heard of.
“I would be completely sympathetic with Catholic chaplains in federal prisons if they’re complaining that this list is inhibiting,” he said, “because I know they have useful books that are not on this list.”
23 comments:
I think that religious books should be available to prisoners. It is their choice what religion they are and what they read about so, those resources should be available to them. However, there should be all types of religious books and for every religion. If there is a problem with prisoners learning terroristic actions from these books, then they should definately take out literature and articles that are at this extreme measure. Strictly prayer books and history about the religions should be placed in prisons. Any terroristic ideas people get from such things, they are stretching the words in their mind and could probably do this with any reading and not just religous pieces.
This is undoubtedly an infringement of the First Amendment. Freedom of Religion means freedom of religion. The government coming in and fully depleting stocks of books pretty much just because they don't suit someones personal preference is completely ludacris. And barbaric. Yeah, its prisons. So don't give them books that tell you to hurt people. Its pretty simple. Taking away all sorts of religious books, and favoring some religions over others? Thats not right. There have been countless instances where reading religious literature has changed someones ways, while in prison. The ability for that to happen is being lessened along with the book supply. I think this is grossly unjust. Prisoners deserve the right to freedom of religion, and this is destroying libraries of chances for them to discover that.
I think this act is a big waste of money and time. The books have been in the libraires for decades and to take them away for terrorist purpose makes no sense. It would be simply easier to make a title list of books that cannot be allowed in the prisions and make sure their is a variety of all types of religious book for every prisoner to read. That way there is equal spread of religion and no freedoms or rights will be taken away. This act has definately crossed the lines of the first ammendment and for them to just try to make a title list of books with no effort isnt being fair even to our criminals.
I believe that what is being done is stupid and wrong and wont help anything. I think they should make sure there is an even number of every type of religous books that way everyone can read about whatever they want. This is America and we are given certain rights and if these books can cause a terrorist attack what about religous hospitals? or even churches? People in prision have to suffer enough from the crimes they have commited and the sentences they face for the punishment of these crimes, so there could be an argument that if taken away prisioners religous freedom through books isnt that cruel or unusual punishment?
I don't think the government should take away any of these books from the prisoners. Some of them are bettering their lives with these books,even though they are religious. It's not as if the prison is forcing them to read these books, it is their choice. They went a little far with this one....
This is yet another case of what terrorism has done to our civil liberties in this country. The government wants to censor books because they may provoke extremism or terrorism?!?! Since when was it the government's job to tell its people what to read and what not to read. Inmates have the right to read whatever they choose just as any other person has the right to be free from censorship. It is understandable to take out books that provoke violence and gangs but when it comes to religion the government is not allowed to keep any individual from religious texts. Libraries should be a non bias wealth of knowledge not a censored reading list of what the government wants you to be exposed to.
This definately interferes with the 1st Amendment's right of freedom of religion. Prisoners should have access to religious books of all religions. The government should not favor certain religions over others. These books are available to people outside of prisons, so they should also be available to prisoners.
Prisons should have religious books available to them. The first obvious reason is freedom of religion. The second is that people in prison need some form of religious faith available to them. The prisons don't want to be seen as an institiution for converting but reiligous books can help make someone better than what they used to be. This is the first time that i've heard of religion=terrorist but I know it's not true. While I can see where the prisons are getting at I still beleive that this is a bit extreme.
Being that religion is one thing that prisoners cling to its sad that people want to take something like this away with nothing to do most people sit and turn to god to try and change who they were to make up for what they have done. some people change while in prison because of their new found religion to make up for what they have done what hapens when the gang member that goes to prison and because he wasnt able to find any religious "salvation" he dosnt change and ends up killing again. where if he had had something that would tell him he would be saved he could have changed his ways. this is just sad its a complete violation of the 1st amendment its a disgrace
I think what the government is trying to do is rather dumb. I honestly don't think terrorist recruitment in jails would be that much of an issue; I don't believe that terrorists are either desperate or dumb enough to try to recruit people from right from under our noses. But the more serious matter is the suppression of religion. While I can understand the "separation of church and state" argument - which has flaws of its own - the censorship of the vast majority of religious texts would probably end up causing more harm than good. Religion is a way for people to find peace and acceptance in their lives; it teaches moral values to people who lack them, which would be many in jail. As Discovery Channel has shown, many who have discovered religion in prison have changed greatly from how they were before. Is that not the purpose of a penal system in the first place? These inmates often act as moderators among prisoners as well. While they have broken the established laws of society, prisoners have codes of honor amongst one another. While officials say they want equal representation on the behalf of all religions, how can one determine what is equal when it comes to religion? Everybody has different beliefs, and the numbers of people of certain faiths is certain to be unequal in any society, including one in prison. I say let prisoners have their religious books.
Censoring books on terrorism is illogical. Making a list of books that can be read is illogical. They are clearing out religious contents, not terrorist-related ones. Even if they are trying to stop militant Islamic ideas, it should be noted that a majority of Muslims are peace-loving hippies and are not too big on bombing other countries. Compiling a list of books that CAN be read is just puzzling to me. Why not compile a list of books that CANNOT be read. Wouldn't that be more sensible?
This is finding a needle in a haystack. I'm sure the terrorist wannabes are dying to do research on their America-bombing plans in the library of a prison where the books are donated by churches. With the money spent on this endeavor, why not spend it buying books that the government deem suitable for the prisoners to read?
I think this does violates the first amendment. They shouldn't take the religious books that the prisoners are reading and learning from because they have freedom of religion. I understand why they would take the books that have violence and terrorism things in there,or even just one little part about it (because of the prisoners that do read those books who can harm the society) but what i think is in order to do that stuff, they would have to get out of prison first, and also if they do do the things from the books, i dont think they would want to go back to prison for it either....some of them anyway.... I mean, its not like the books had parts in them that showed prisoners how to escape prison or something,which those should definitely definitely be removed....So, if the government is taking away religious books from the prisoners just because of some part in there, that violates the first amendment,freedom of religion. I think the prisoners should have the religious books. Its their religion, and they have the right to practice whichever one they want.
In my opinion, taking these books away from the prisoners will cause more problems and violence than before. Like it was said in the passage,it's like "swatting a fly with a sledgehammer". I believe that this situation was taken way too far and made bigger than it really is. These prisoners at least have the right to become educated in the religion of their choice with no problems.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Taking away religous books is most definitely an infringement on the First Amendment. Since when does reading certain materials provoke someone to become a terrorist? If the governement is going to restrict reading lists for prisoners,then why does the rest of America get to read these books? Will the rest of us become terrorists?!? Religious books shoudl be availabel for prisoners, especially since many of them are trying to change their lives for the better. I understand that the Govt is trying to take caution with the prevention of terrorism... but this is jsut dumb. Also,I agree with what religious groups have been telling the bureau; a forbidden books list would have been much easier to deal with.
This is one of those things that really make me angry. Not just religious books, but any published book, newspaper, anything should be made available to these inmates. Am I crazy, or is freedom of the press still a first amendment right?
Thats only half of the issue though. How can religious publications be banned from prisoners on the grounds that it prevents extremism. If that were the case, this list would have to apply to the rest of the United States because extremism can exist outside of prison. On top of that the Establishment Clause states that the government can neither promote of inhibit religion, but by creating this list, they are promoting some denominations, over others. If this were a supreme court case, I am almost certain that this act of our government would fail the three pronged "lemon test" outright.
First of all, this case sounds almost exactly like Near v. Minnesota in 1931, when our dearly beloved government started getting nervous about a newspaper calling them out on corruption. Since this particular situation is very similar to the Near case, and since the Near ruled that prior constraint is unconstitutional, then the government has no right to get rid of religious texts in prisons. They made that law anyway. If they're such sticklers for the law, they ought to chill out about making separation between church and state so strong and worry more about the things they've already said.
Secondly, while this sounds like more of a violation of freedom of religion, it seems to be more of a problem with the freedom of speech. Just like the book says in the chapter five reading on the Brandenburg v. Ohio case, you can say whatever you want as long as it doesn't actually do anything wrong. Sure, there are lots of crazies in our prisons, and the last thing we need is one of them twisting the words of either the Bible or the Koran into justifying a genocide, but that doesn't mean they ALL will. (If they do, by all means, take out the books PRONTO.)
Finally, unless the government goes through every single text and decides which indicates "clear and present danger", they can't assume that the Koran wants all Muslims to kill all Christians. If it wasn't like that BEFORE the Crusades, it probably won't be after, just like they can't assume that the Bible wants all Christians to beat the Word into every person who thinks differently. If that was the case, there would be alot of dead people, or alot of people with large bumps and/or bruises.
I believe religious material being left in prison libraries would be a positive thing. Many prisoners serving life long terms basically have nothing else going for them other than religion. If you take away the one reason they have for living a positive life more problems such as gang violence and disorderly conduct in prison will occur because the prisoners have no other reason to behave. I don't understand religious intolerance because the fundamental ideas behind most major religions are the same; which is respect for all living things. So in conclusion I think religious material shouldn't be removed from prison but only if material from all religions, whithin reason, is provided.
Well, I can see how this might be a problem. Since most jails are federally run (I think?) I think it might be risky if they kept religious texts due to the whole "seperation of church from state". And then there's the fear of some inmates takinig the wrong idea from texts due to 9/11. Still, though, it is quite unsettling to think that inmates have some of their religious texts taken them away. You can put a man in jail, but is it morally right to keep him from those texts? But most of these books were donated, so one would think it wouldn't be an issue with keeping them in. I really think that more people are going to be outraged because they're taking away all these donated religious texts because the state did NOT actually provide them for the inmates.
ok im a little worried because my comment hasn't posted.
so im restating everything i said before.. This is absolutely ridiculous. Restricting religious materials in this manner is definitely an infringement on the prisoners rights. Since when does reading religious materials turn you terrorist??? Helloooo! We all know America is on terrorist alert, but really? Also, a banned books list would be easier to deal wiht rather than what the bureau is doing right now.
i feel that even though they are prisoners and the system has the ability to control many things that they have i don't think they should be able to take away their religious freedom they shouldn't have the right to take away something that important to them it could be all that they have clinging to the real world
The religious oriented gangs/cults/groups and already established in the prison systems. So this is like closing the barn door after the animals got out. (I am not refering to Animal Farm on this) These groups will just tell the stories and edit them to fit their views. So, you waste money by taking books out of the prisons for what reason exactly? To stop terrorists from recruiting, yah, ok but there is a huge hole in that logic. They don't NEED those books, they have their programmed minds to convert them, and besides, if a new terrorist gang pops up, I will put money on the white power gangs will have them all dead within the year.
Game, set, match.
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