In a decision issued earlier this week, the 7th Circuit upheld a Wisconsin prison rule banning inmates from playing Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy games. Prison officials argued that the confiscation of D&D materials was justified as an effort to avoid stimulating gang activity, violence, and competitive hostility. The evidence offered to support the harmful effects of D&D included, inter alia, an affidavit by a specialist claiming that the structure of D&D mimics the organization of gangs and could lead to their eventual formation, cases from other states alleging that playing fantasy games can lead to addictive escapism that divorces inmates from reality, a case where a non-inmate D&D player committed suicide, and a case where two non-inmate D&D players committed a crime while acting out a D&D storyline.
In my opinion, the various rationales seem silly. Games, particularly video games, have generated quite a bit of positive press for their ability to provide escapism for inmates. Some Oregon correctional facilities have even seen significant drops in gang-related behavior simply because inmates that are divorced from the realities of prison life are less likely to join gangs. As for the other two rationales, with enough research one could, sadly, link almost any hobby or storyline to the commission of a crime or suicide. While I can somewhat understand not wanting prisoners to play anything from the Grand Theft Auto series, a game of D&D or one of its various video game incarnations hardly seems like a threat to anyone’s safety.
Unfortunately for Wisconsin inmates, prison officials need only prove that their regulations are rationally related to a legitimate goal of prison administration. Here, the goal is clearly legitimate–reducing inmate gang activity–and, as we all know, “rational basis” more often than not reads “any reason at all.”
With this in mind, readers with friends and relatives in a Wisconsin correctional facility may want to rethink sending the latest Dungeon Master’s Guide or Elder Scrolls game. Why not try a more traditional cake-with-a-metal-file-baked-inside?
You can read the full opinion here and listen to the oral argument here.
