Originally published at: Jail inmate crafted Christmas village model from commissary items, officers promptly confiscated it as contraband | Boing Boing
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Martha Stewart would do better.
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“Apparently the jail’s policy on contraband includes acceptable items that have been transformed into something else.”
Does this mean they snatch the shit out of your toilet too?
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Another casualty in the War on Christmas™️.
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Only the artistic shit. You know: the kind that might another inmate jealous.
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They could say this about literally anything
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It’s funny you say that. On one of her holiday episodes a few years ago she showed a handmade clay nativity scene and very matter-of-factly stated, “I made this while I was in the penitentiary.” It was a nice looking setup. I’ll need to see if there’s a video clip online somewhere. Edit: Found this… Martha Stewart built nativity scene in prison | CTV News
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Can I have a rock hammer to make a Christmas village in stone?
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Like freedom.
This shit is so beyond stupid and illustrates perfectly what people mean when they say “the cruelty is the point.” Logic would dictate that giving inmates opportunities to occupy themselves with healthy pastimes would be encouraged, but logic has no place in the US penal system.
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Somehow, I don’t think Fox News is going to be complaining about this one.
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Amazing what you can get away with when you’re a wealthy white celebrity in a white collar resort prison.
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Someone watched the scene from Escape from Alcatraz where Patrick McGoohan’s character bans painting out of spite—knowing full well that art is all that provides one of his inmates with the will to live—and said to themselves “now that’s the kind of guy I want to be.”
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I bet that jackass cop would consider it to be pretty damn punitive if someone else stole a project he worked hard on and was meaningful to him because it broke a pointless rule
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Dehumanising
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Well we can’t very well have people in our correctional facilities learning how to be creative or well-adjusted human beings. Far better to treat them like beasts and then puzzle over why so many have difficulty re-integrating into society after their release.
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“For instance, they like to make necklaces, we actually sell a necklace in the commissary for religious purposes. But it breaks if you pull it. It can be used as a (strangulation tool) or a weapon in any way,” said Dwyer in a Journal-News interview.
Yet they continue to sell it? 
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I assume it was an error in the quotation. I expect the reporter intended to juxtapose the inmate-made necklace which could be used as a choking device, with the one available in the commissary which will break.
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That was my thinking; someone wrote “can” instead of “can’t.”
But it still doesn’t explain why inmates aren’t allowed to make anything new out of the things they buy at the commissary; the Sheriff’s Office themselves seemed to concede this craft display wasn’t inherently dangerous in any way. Is origami against the rules too?
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