South Carolina Jail Bans All Books But the Bible

[ensho]

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/04/14/restricted-reading-south-carolina-jail-bans-all-books-except-for-the-bible/?xid=rss-politics-huffpo


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According to legal complaints, the only book, good or otherwise, that inmates at the Berkeley County Detention Center can readily get their hands on is the Bible. Granted, it's a bestseller, and there's a lot in those pages to keep one occupied and even entertained — mind-bending seven-day creation of the universe, violence, sex, walking on water, resurrection, etc. — but sometimes you just want to read an Agatha Christie mystery. Or, if you're Jewish, the Torah, in a copy without the extra testament. Of particular interest to prisoners just might be reading material on prisoners' rights.


The U.S. Department of Justice, brandishing its own sacred text — the U.S. Constitution — has filed a complaint against the sheriff's office that runs the alleged book-barring jail. It's moving to join a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union last October. The ACLU suit was filed on behalf of Prison Legal News, whose publications, the suit alleges, have been turned away from the jail since 2008. The AP quotes an email, sent to PLN publishers, from jail official First Sgt. K. Habersham: “Our inmates are only allowed to receive soft back bibles in the mail directly from the publisher…. They are not allowed to have magazines, newspapers, or any other type of books.”

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The Christian Science Monitor reports that Berkeley County Sheriff/defendant H. Wayne DeWitt "maintains that any actions taken at the jail are justified to preserve health and safety, and to further the pursuit of ‘legitimate penological objectives.' ” By the way, among the books rejected by the jail, according to the ACLU, is one for prisoners called Protecting Your Health and Safety.

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the religiously insane should be barred from holding any govt. power

[Erose999]

1. What? The should at least let the inmates read Glenn Beak's "Overton Window", or Newt Gingrich's

"alternate history" novels. Not to mention Decision Points, Going Rogue, and Atlas Shrugged.

[juajen]

2. Amen, brother or sister! The "Golden Mean" should be our stance, forever more.

[aquart]

3. Well, I hope they include the Old Testament.

Because that's the dirty one.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Geez, no access to law books. Many inmates appeal pro se and need

that information to have a chance to be released.

[ejpoeta]

5. if they are going to ban books, then they should ban the bible also. do they alow the quaran?

or the jewish one? if you are going to ban, then fucking ban all books. period.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. "the religiously insane should be barred from holding any govt. power"

THAT should have been the 1st Amendment.

[Wounded Bear]

7. He said "penological"

:snicker: :snicker:

;)

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Like that'll last. Good for the DOJ and ACLU.