Should Federal prisons ban religious books from library jails?

No

6 of 32

by Jason Echols

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I feel that religious content in Federal Prisons can be very beneficial for some of the inmates. Although I myself am not religious at all, I know from personal experience that there are a tremendous amount of people who are helped by their beliefs in religion. Federal Prisons should give inmates all the resources and tools that they can come up with in order to give the inmates the best possible chance on the outside. Now, I know that there are a lot of those inmates who will never see the outside again, but even for them, there is a positive aspect to having a belief system.
Prisoners are people too, and they deserve the same courtesy that we all should enjoy. Freedom of religion is one of the rights that we value so highly in this country. Taking that right away from Federal prisoners would, in essence, be a direct violation of our Constitution.
Whether we agree on religion or not, we shouldn't exclude religion from people who may be in desperate need for something to lift their spirits. I see keeping those types of books and reading materials out of the prisons as a way of telling the people who live behind bars, that they are not allowed to enjoy the same rights as the rest of the people in the United States.
I know there are probably people thinking that I am off my rocker because we have to take certain rights away from these criminals. I agree with that. But, we also need to realize that these people have already had a tremendous amount of rights already removed from them. Why add injury to insult? People change and we need to be aware of the fact that if religious reading material can be an integral part in that change, then we need to offer them that opportunity.

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