Look at the young man at the left. Clearly a dangerous gang member, right? Well, he could be, according to Wisconsin’s Wapun Correctional Facility and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, because according to them, the structure of D&D promotes gang behavior.
Personally, we thought gang behavior was generally what got you put in prison in the first place, but this is Wisconsin, their idea of a gang is probably a bunch of guys in pompadours and biker jackets. It always gets ugly when a rockabilly band visits Madison, because the cops think they’re the Hells Angels.
So how does D&D promote gang behavior according to clueless Muggles? Well, according to Captain Muraski of the prison, the Dungeon Master tells people what to do, and the people in question do it. By that standard, Gamma Squad is a gang. We could probably hang with the Latin Kings.
Oh, also, D&D can apparently foster feelings of extreme escapism, which as we all learned in the 1980s totally leads to violence in prisoners. It’s not, you know, being in a confined environment with a violent, top-down parallel society that fosters a desire for escapism, it’s D20s.
Look, we’re not arguing in favor of the plantiff in terms of getting him out of jail; the prisoner in question, Kevin Singer, beat somebody to death with a sledgehammer. He’s Jack Chick’s dream. But banning D&D for the reasons the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals did, mostly that nobody could prove D&D didn’t encourage gang behavior, is idiotic, and does nobody any favors. Gee, prisoners, in prison, with nothing to occupy their time? How can that end badly?
[ via the paladins at Blastr ]