Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hairfoot" data-source="post: 5095370" data-attributes="member: 23732">I think many posters have made compelling arguments that, while D&D is unlikely to promote or cover gang activity, in a prison environment the rules always need to err on the side of staff safety.It's a bit worrying, though, that so many people believe prison is a place of punishment, when the grounding principle of gaol in a free society is that people are confined there as punishment, not for punishment.The goal is to segregate individuals who may do harm of some sort while exacting payment for their acts through - solely - the removal of liberty.If the goal of imprisonment is revenge, democracies could save a lot of time and money by cutting 20-year sentences down to 3 years, but beating the prisoners senseless each day.  Or we could cut out prison time completely and just amputate hands or feet or ears, or kill convicts in a slow and painful manner...you see where the revenge principle leads.If the goal of imprisonment is to safeguard the community and attempt to rehabilitate prisoners for release, I don't see why D&D, properly supervised, is any more objectionable than baseball or snooker or poker played for toothpicks.  Banning a prisoner from D&D as a punitive measure is just a mild form of torture and should be recognised as such.</blockquote>