Prisons return purged religious books

alanna_owusu@yahoo.com

After a 2004 Department of Justice report mentioned that religious books that incite violence could infiltrate prison chapel libraries, the federal Bureau of Prisons purged certain religious materials from the shelves of the libraries.

The action created widespread outrage with religious groups, civil libertarians and members of Congress prompting the bureau to immediately return the items that were removed.

The bureau had originally set out to take an inventory of all materials in the chapel libraries to weed out books that might incite violence, but after the list grew to the tens and thousands, it decided to compile lists of acceptable materials in a plan called the Standardized Chapel Library Project.

Republican lawmakers, liberal Christians and evangelical talk shows criticized the the bureau for creating a list of acceptable religious books.

Bob Moore, director of prison policy oversight at Aleph, an advocacy group for Jews in prison, said the lack of detail and transparency about how the lists were determined troubled him.

“Our position is there should not be a list of what should be on the shelves,” Moore said. “But what shouldn’t be.”

Script:
When the federal Bureau of Prisons removed certain religious books from prison chapel libraries, it incited a public outcry from religious groups, civil libertarians and members of congress demanding that the books be returned.

In wake of the criticism, the bureau will immediately return the books that were removed in June 2007. The bureau said it was prompted to create a list of acceptable religious books after a report from the department of Justice mentioned that certain religious books could incite violence.

Unidentified religious experts helped the bureau compile the list, which independent scholars say omitted many important religious texts.

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