I’m always talking about the cliche that prisoners should “find God” to improve their lives. The first time I went to IMU (the Hole) back in the late nineties, there was a Bible waiting for me. Every cell came equipped with one. Why? Because of the cliche, the idea that a holy book would be good for you. And this was Washington state, not exactly like a southern Bible Belt state.

I think prisoners should focus more on their intellectual development than their “spiritual” development (whatever that even means; I don’t know). Discover the thousands of years of human moral development, the works of the great ethical philosophers, etc. Learn that it’s not as simple as: Religion equals Morality.

For my part, I wish I’d had a copy of Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, waiting in that cell for me. But that’s another story.

Dan Turner
DOC# 767569