Prisoner not allowed to play D&D

[jaerdaph]

Really? They may not have much of an idea what D&D players outside of prison are like, but I imagine they have an all-too-clear idea of what D&D-playing criminals are like.

Don't get me wrong, I agree they are in the best position to know if that is the case.

But at the end of the day, I'm not going to lose any sleep if a convicted first degree murderer with a life sentence gets his D&D books and ability to play taken away.

I'd just hate to see this assumption about D&D in prison and the people in prison that play D&D trickle down all the way to the juvenile offender level, where they are eventually going to be back in mainstream society. I've worked with kids on Riker's Island in the past. D&D and roleplaying can be a good thing for them. But then again, so can painting, writing poetry and playing basketball.

I'd love to say more about the issue and how people in authority's views towards D&D might be slanted towards the negative by... other influences.... but I don't want to cross the no politics/no religion boundary line we have here.

I do know one thing though. If I ever end up in The Big House, I'm staying out of the Edition Wars!

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

You have to watch out fo those gamers. Leave them unchecked and next thing you know there will be kids peddling Cheetos and Mountain Dew on the street and drive by dicings. If the community still does nothing, they will soon find themselves in the midst of a full-blow LARP war and people will be too scared to leave the house.

Gamer gangs are nothing but trouble.

 

[Voadam]

Really? They may not have much of an idea what D&D players outside of prison are like, but I imagine they have an all-too-clear idea of what D&D-playing criminals are like.

As far as I can tell from the court's decision it is just Muraski's statement that:

fantasy role-playing games like D&D have “been found to
promote competitive hostility, violence, and addictive
escape behavior, which can compromise not only the
inmate’s rehabilitation and effects of positive programming,
but endanger the public and jeopardize the safety
and security of the institution.”

He's an expert on gangs and cults and prison security, not on D&D and prison security.

 

[Mark Chance]

He's an expert on gangs and cults and prison security, not on D&D and prison security.

And the expert in bludgeoning people to death failed to make his case. The burden of proof that the prison's policy is unreasonable falls on the one making the complaint, not on the prison. The court's decision clearly states more than once that the murderer failed to do so. In the end, the court decided that the person making policy about prison security really ought to be the expert on prison security rather than a convicted killer.

Sounds like a good policy to me.

 

[Ourph]

He's an expert on gangs and cults and prison security, not on D&D and prison security.

Prisoners play games in prison. As an expert on prison security, I'm sure Mr. Muraski is quite knowledgeable as to what impact those kinds of activities might have on security issues and prisoner behavior. His statements about D&D weren't intended as an analysis of the game in the general public, they were an analysis of the game as played by criminals in a prison environment. In that light, I take his comments as being very authoritative.

Does he know that playing D&D always leads to an increase in gang activity? No. But that's not the standard the court was using. The standard was whether the prison officials had a reasonable belief that the game posed a security risk. I think Mr. Muraski's credentials make him eminently qualified to answer that question.

 

[Voadam]

We know Muraski's a gang specialist.

The prison officials countered Singer’s affidavit
evidence by submitting an affidavit from Captain Bruce
Muraski, who has spent nearly twenty years as Waupun’s
Disruptive Group Coordinator and Security Supervisor
and belongs to both the Midwest Gang Investigators
Association and the Great Lakes International Gang
Investigators Coalition. Muraski also has extensive
training in illicit groups ranging from nationwide street
and prison gangs to small occult groups and has been
certified as a gang specialist by the National Gang Crime
Research Center.

Here's what we know he said about RPGs:

fantasy role-playing games like D&D have “been found to
promote competitive hostility, violence, and addictive
escape behavior, which can compromise not only the
inmate’s rehabilitation and effects of positive programming,
but endanger the public and jeopardize the safety
and security of the institution.”

We don't know the basis for this testimony. His experience dealing with prisoners gaming? Studies making such findings? His gut?

Is this the first he has dealt with RPGs or considered them in a penological context?

 

[billd91]

Frankly, I don't have pity if they don't allow a prisoner to do anything, even play D&D. Whatever will make them more miserable, the better.

Do you ever expect them to get out some day? If that's the case (and it is with most inmates), perhaps simply increasing their misery isn't such a good idea.

I did play D&D a few years ago with a guy that just got out of San Quentin. He learned how to play D&D in prison and liked it so much that he looked for a game to play in when he got out. He was in for burglary and was real honest and up front about serving his time. He seemed like a nice guy.

So why would you have wanted to inflict more misery on him in the penal system? Why would you want to deprive other guys the chances he had?

 

[Ourph]

We know Muraski's a gang specialist.

Here's what we know he said about RPGs:

We don't know the basis for this testimony. His experience dealing with prisoners gaming? Studies making such findings? His gut?

Is this the first he has dealt with RPGs or considered them in a penological context?

Yeah, I don't know that either, but given his extensive experience, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since he isn't claiming to know that the game will lead to problems, only that it had the risk of leading to problems. Conservative assertions are always a good sign that someone actually knows what they are talking about.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

fantasy role-playing games like D&D have “been found to
promote competitive hostility, violence, and addictive
escape behavior, which can compromise not only the
inmate’s rehabilitation and effects of positive programming,
but endanger the public and jeopardize the safety
and security of the institution.”

This is the only reason I have issue with this entire thing. I don't have an issue with them wanting to restrict the playing of RPGs in prison, I just feel his characterization of role-playing games is not based on empirical evidence, but feelings and conjecture. I'm thinking that similar statements could be said about sports. Basketball can lead to competetive hostility and violence. A "team captain" may be chosen or emerge who has control over the other players. Again, I think there are decent arguments on both sides, I just don't like the idea that somehow RPGs are somehow different from other games in their promotion of hostility and competetive and escapist behavior.

 

[roguerouge]

Here's the decision itself: http://abovethelaw.com/2010/01/26/Singer v. Raemisch.pdf

A lawyer friend of mine sent it to me, noting that "The above is a Seventh Circuit opinion upholding a ban on D&D in prison because it can lead to gang activity. I'm not kidding."