Dungeons and Dragons - A Threat to Prison Security

[Firebeetle]

What part of "Kevin T. Singer, a long-time dungeon-explorer sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for bludgeoning and stabbing his sister’s boyfriend" implies that said boyfriend did something heinous to his sister?

While I certainly agree that "prisoners are people too", the idea that a life sentence (or any sentence) is "pretty harsh punishment in and of itself" is entirely dependent upon what that term means. The more comfortable prison is, the better it looks in comparison to, say, working and contributing to society.

I also disagree that not being allowed a game within a prison environment is "cruel". Personally, I wouldn't allow television, either, and movies would be a treat for good behaviour. But, then, I don't think prisons should ever become too comfortable. Being incarcerated for a felony crime should be something that one strenously avoids.

(I will grant that, in some cases, this being one, I may just be an .)

I don't believe that it is "arbitrary" either, because reading the decision convinced me that it was not. It is contrary to the security of a prison to allow a prisoner to put himself in a position of authority over other prisoners, and then actively recruit.

When I was in Basic Training (US Army), there was little to do on the weekends, so I ran a D&D game. We weren't allowed books or dice, but I came up with a system by which a game could be run. So that I had time to prep the game, I had other recruits offering to polish my boots, make my bed, etc.

I can imagine how much easier it would be to take advantage within a prison environment, were one disposed to do so. I certainly could so. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that within a year and half, I'd have guards involved in the games, unless the prison prevented me from so doing.

Finally, there is no evidence whatsoever that the "naughty nerds" angle that the news media is so fond of bringing up play any part in Captain Muraski's decision to confiscate Singer's campaign notes, or in the decision that determined he was justified in so doing.

So, no, I have no sympathy for Singer's desire to game in prison.


RC

I agree that Singer's actions earned him his place in jail and, no matter what happened to his sister, he had no right to take the law in his own hands like that.

Having said that, I feel that the role of prisons needs to be rehabilitation, not punishment. Punishment doesn't work, and the lack of rehabilitation means that any prisoner going in comes out worse, and not better. Even in the case of life inmates, they can still make contributions to society from jail if rehabilitated and if not they contribute to the no-escape-from-crime culture that exists there.

Playing a game that involves taking turns, being social, having patience, reading, expanded vocabulary, math (including probabilities), actions with consequences, heroic actions, and thinking about actions before taking them is a good thing for prisoners. It certainly isn't "gang activity", it's almost the opposite.

I'd like emphasize again, as I did on my blog, THIS AFFECTS US. A federal court decision that says D&D is a cause of criminal activity, no matter how ridiculous we know that do be, is a problem for every player. Here's a few possible consequences off the top of my head, all of which are more possible with a federal court finding that we have:

1.) A group of middle school students are forbidden from playing D&D at school and have their books confiscated, perhaps even sent to a counselor or given disciplinary action.
2.) A teacher is told to quit the game or lose his job, and is passed over for important roles in his district.
3.) A pastor is asked to leave his congregation because he plays.
4.) A businessman is overlooked for promotion, when he files grievance, the court case is cited as a reason.
5.) A local politician has "gang-related activities" used against him in a local campaign.
6.) A manager of a fast food chain is suddenly moved to a store with less prominence or chance of promotion because his employees told a regional manager that he play, and the regional manager caught word in an article that D&D causes gang activity.

This affects us and we should be concerned. I'm not sure what the next step is though. Any suggestions?

 

[nedjer]

The only way for players to tackle this kind of 'thinking' is to be aware of it and to actively challenge the views of those presenting such views. That starts with questioning their integrity, i.e. why is a 'clergyman', a reporter or a politician attacking a harmless game with a lot of unscientific nonsense when there are far greater more obvious and proven 'ungodly' behaviours out there.

For example, why aren't they spending their evenings writing letters for Amnesty International to stop getting people torture? Or instead of giving speeches helping out at the local homeless shelter? We know that torture and homelessness damages people; there is no scientific evidence that the roleplaying techniques used in doctors' and astronaut's training causes harm - so why are these people lying is a valid question. Surely lying is particularly ungodly

Should be called out every time. That said, there's not a lot of point in all the recent effort folks like Mike Mearls seem to be putting into making RPGs more accessible, appealing to wider audiences and (according to the Twitter posts) getting into social networking apps for RPGs (that'll likely be the PC, campaign and adventure interactive logs or lifestreams I've rambled about before) when someone then goes and makes 'The Book of Vile Darkness' movie.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I agree that Singer's actions earned him his place in jail and, no matter what happened to his sister, he had no right to take the law in his own hands like that.

Well, there we agree, at least, and I applaud you for making a reasoned argument (rather than a series of jokes, for example).

I feel that the role of prisons needs to be rehabilitation, not punishment.

And the prison claimed that D&D interferes with that by taking prisoners away from the situation the prison is attempting to use to rehabilitate them. Singer's case did not answer that allegation.

Ultimately, the court has to decide on behalf of the prison unless the plaintiff successfully answers the reasons given by the prison. Singer failed to address those reasons.

The court even notes in the decision that the prison's arguments may well be weak and/or answerable, but that Singer did not do so.

Playing a game that involves taking turns, being social, having patience, reading, expanded vocabulary, math (including probabilities), actions with consequences, heroic actions, and thinking about actions before taking them is a good thing for prisoners.

Perhaps, but that doesn't answer the prison's arguments.

It certainly isn't "gang activity", it's almost the opposite.

Unlike, say, a point guard in basketball, a GM's authority derives both from his being difficult to replace and the amount of control he has over the successful outcome of the game. From experience (my own Basic Training experience), I can say without any doubt that, were one disposed to do so, one could easily use running a game to form the nucleus of a gang in an environment where there are few alternative forms of entertainment.

Moreover, even if Singer wasn't of that bent, the prison would have a much harder time explaining why some other prisoner (who was) couldn't also run a game.

There is no doubt in my mind that the prison's argument is 100% correct here.

A federal court decision that says D&D is a cause of criminal activity

No, it does not. I suggest you read it again.


RC