Inmates at the federal prison camp in Otisville, NY, were stunned when they entered the chapel library on Memorial Day – hundreds of books had disappeared from the shelves. Similar vanishing acts are happening nationwide as part of a long-delayed post-9/11 federal directive designed to keep radical religious texts, specifically Islamic ones, out of the hands of violent inmates.
Three Otisville inmates have filed suit, saying their constitutional rights are being violated, since not only Islamic prayer books, but also Christian books and ancient Jewish texts have been removed.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Feldman told U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain that under the new rules, prison libraries limit the number of books for each religion to between 100 and 150.
(Source: NY Post)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
12 Responses
In what way does an arbitrary limit of 100 religious books prevent radical, inciting texts from reaching the hands of violent inmates?
If the criterion is whether the book actually urges violence or violent thinking, how is the number 100 associated with that effort? And if that is the criterion, is someone examining the books to choose intelligently amongst them?
This seems to be a typical government operation: arbitrary, insensitive, cost-inefficient, and liable to do more harm than good.
The goyishe kep in charge of US bureaucracies can’t ever seem to figure out how to separate the evil from the innocent. This is no surprise to me at all. It’s like all the bottles of shampoo and perfume that are thrown out at the airport terminals each day.
Esg78: “It’s like all the bottles of shampoo and perfume that are thrown out at the airport terminals each day”
Mah inyan shemittah eitzel har sinai?
There is good reason for throwing them out, and there is a good reason for the 3 oz limit.
i drove a sefer torah up to otisville years ago for the yomim noraim…
hashem yishmor!
shazam
The “good reason for throwing them out” is because the US security doesn’t know how to tell a terrorist by his suspicious actions, and response to questions. So _everybody_ is a suspected terrorist, even elderly grandmothers. If it were so important, it would be done by all airline security, instead of only on flights to and from the US. As I understand it, if you fly from Israel to Europe or any where else, you don’t have all these rules to worry about.
There is a famous story about Reb Yaakov. A “choshuva” Chasideshe Yid was sitting in prison, so Reb Yaakov sent him a shaver.
These gonovim should all keep quiet and not complain about the fact that they can’t learn. They didn’t seem to care much about the Torah before they got sent to prison.
I am looking at all the posts about this issue. I unfortunately have had the “pleasure” of visiting an acquaitance in Riker’s Island. It was an experience. If just gave me the chills knowing that anyone of us could Chalilo wind up there.
No one is able to differentiate between the symbolic, spiritual, and incitement to violence kind. Both Christianity and Islam are religions of violence and hatred. The assumption of the Christian and Muslim clergy (or hope) is that Judaism is also. So, everything goes in the garbage. Just think of the sifrei kodesh, the siddurim, the gemorrahs, and mishnayos that people donated over the years so our brothers stuck in prison could have a bit of geshmak in their otherwise miserable existence. Uch!
To azoi iz.
First of all just because they did aveiros before they went to jail does not mean that they didn’t/aren’t do teshuva. So how do you dare say that someone can’t or should not be able to learn because he did something wrong in his past?
azoi iz, Do teshuva. Aside from your ” story” being a bubba maisa (as you told it), have you any idea how many innocent people are languishing in prison in our broken ”justice”’ system? It is a system where the guilty are freed and the innocent are incarcerated.
Indeed, I would not like to see mussar sforim denied to Otisville Federal Kollel yungerleit. Ditto for Choshen Mishpat.
they don’t have any terrorist’s behind bars anyway!
they cant catch them & if they do they release them !(like the guy they released today)
what are they afraid of?
And Jewish Attorneys are Representing these Terrorists!