Dungeons and Dragons for Criminals
There isn’t a day that goes by that I wonder to myself, how prisoners get through their day as a caged monkey. Surely, D&D is a stroke of genius. One game of Dungeons and Dragons can make 10 years in the pen feel like a weekend at your mother-in-law’s and what better way to prove your dominance in wing B, than to reach “Level 40 Master Wizard”. Although, I wouldn’t mention that to any incarcerated KKK members.
Kevin T. Singer of Madison Wisconsin had the same great idea to past the time during his lengthy sentence for intentional homicide. That is until prison officials at Wisconsin’s Waupun prison confiscated dozens of D&D books, magazines and his own 96 page manuscript of game scenarios. What started this sudden ban of this heinous game?
In 2004 an anonymous letter was submitted by an inmate expressing concern about Singer and three other inmates forming a “Dungeons & Dragons” gang. So Waupun prison officials enacted the ban and Singer has since sued Waupun prison for violating his 1st amendment rights.
Check out this excerpt from the source article of the prison officials defense.
Singer was told by prison officials that he could not keep the materials because Dungeons & Dragons “promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling,” according to the ruling. The prison later developed a more comprehensive policy against all types of fantasy games, the court said.
Looks like Singer will have to find another way to cope with life in prison, which by the way, he was sentenced for bludgeoning his sisters brother in the head with a sledgehammer.
Maybe his sister’s beau said that an Elf’s bow and arrow and better than a Dwarf’s hammer!
Thats an ironic but amazing story! Love your blog!