Court upholds D&D ban in prisons

A reader highlighted the post at the Volokh Conspiracy:

In a decision issued today (here is an alternate link to the decision), the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a Wisconsin prison’s rule forbidding inmates to play Dungeons & Dragons or possess D&D publications and materials [HT: Josh Blackman].

The prison’s rationale for the ban is that playing D&D might stimulate “gang activity” by inmates. But the government conceded that there is no evidence that Dungeons and Dragons actually had stimulated gang activity in the past, either in this prison or elsewhere. The only evidence for the supposedly harmful effects of Dungeons and Dragons were a few cases from other states where playing the game supposedly led inmates to indulge in “escapism” and become divorced from reality

Hell now I know one can be banned from playing D&D in prison, I’m going to start obeying the law. No more bank robberies for me if it means I can’t visit the Prime Material Plane!

Mind you I am surprised the prison authorities needed to ban D&D playing in prison. I would have thought the high risk of being beaten to a pulp by the other prisoners would be a suitable deterrent!