Game Politics

NEW GOVERNOR BANS VIDEO GAMES IN MISSOURI PRISON SYSTEM

Earlier this year Missouri's new Republican Governor Matt Blunt issued an executive order banning inmates at Missouri's state prisons from playing video games. A press release issued by Blunt's office reads in part, "...the order follows suit with 47 other states in banning prisoners from using this often violent style of entertainment."

The events leading up to Blunt's action began back in December, when a Kansas City Star journalist named Tim Hoover reported that inmates at the Jefferson City Correctional Center were playing video games, and in some cases, violent games such as Hitman: Contracts and the Grand Theft Auto series. The prisoners were also playing a variety of non-violent games based on sports and other themes.

By the way, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I write a weekly column on video games for the Philadelphia Inquirer . Both the Inquirer and the Star are owned by Knight-Ridder.

Anyway, back to the story. Hoover reported that the prison spent about $13,000 for 20 television sets, 22 PlayStation 2 systems, and 82 video games. The funds involved came from the prison's canteen, which sells items to the prisoners, so in effect the inmates paid for the video game setup themselves.

The superintendent of the prison seemed to believe that playing video games would relax the inmates and help them pass the time. But someone dropped the ball by not screening the games before they went into the Correctional Center's collection. It shouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to figure out that allowing inmates play a game like Grand Theft Auto where it's okay to shoot cops wasn't going to be a good idea in a locked facility where guards and prisoners essentially co-exist in a 24x7 standoff.

In any case, after the K.C. Star broke the story, prison management reacted by removing 35 violent games, a very reasonable approach under the circumstances. That left, presumably, games like Madden Football, Harry Potter, and Fisherman's Bass Club for the inmates to play.

Enter Governor Blunt. One of very his first executive orders removed the PlayStation 2's and all of the non-violent games from the Jefferson City jail. Here's what he had to say:

"Video games are a luxury that inmates should not be allowed to enjoy...Our penitentiaries are punitive institutions where those who have committed crimes against society are sent to pay for their actions. They are not meant to be arcades."

So is the Jefferson City jail - any jail - safer with or without video games? You do the math. Take a prison population that is largely under 30, that has little to do day in and day out. Would they be better passing a few hours peacefully with Tiger Woods Golf, or should they congregate in the prison yard with the rest of the felons, discussing the best way to hot wire an Escalade and conspiring against the guards?