Prisons Tossing Religious Books
Prisons are dismantling collections of religious books as part of an effort to block access to materials that can be used by militant Islamic and other radical groups.
The Bureau of Prisons has created lists of up to 150 approved books for each of 20 religions or religious categories, and books that didn’t make the list are being tossed out, the New York Times reports.
Some religious scholars who reviewed the lists for the Times said some important books were not on the lists and the selections showed bias toward some religious movements. The spokesman for one Orthodox Jewish group said the policy led to the removal of three-fourths of the Jewish books from the library at the Federal Prison Camp in Otisville, N.Y.
Two inmates who object to the changes have filed a federal class action suit claiming religious liberty violations under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the story says. New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is handling the case pro bono.
Mark Earley, president of the Christian group Prison Fellowship, told the Times the Bureau of Prisons is going too far.
“It’s swatting a fly with a sledgehammer,” he said. “There’s no need to get rid of literally hundreds of thousands of books that are fine simply because you have a problem with an isolated book or piece of literature that presents extremism.”
