Religious Books Banned in Prision
April 1, 2008
Fahrenheit 451 takes on a new name: Standardized Chapel Library Project. The federal Bureau of Prisons has created a list of acceptable religious books. The plan identifies about 150 books for each of 20 religious categories.
The reason was due to a Department of Justice report that stated religious books that incite violence could infiltrate chapel libraries. This prompted immediate action from the bureau to ban a plethora of religious books. After much criticism from Republican lawmakers, liberal Christians and evangelical talk shows for creating this list. The bureau has decided to compromise and return some religious materials that had been purged from prison chapel libraries.
The bureaus plans to add additions to the Standardized Chapel Library Project list once a year. Slowly filling the empty shelves of chapel libraries that once housed thousands of books collected over decades. Still many are troubled that the criteria for returning the books may not be constitutional and lawful.
