“There’s D&D in nearly every [correctional] institution in California.”
This is the line that the introductory video for Let’s Play: Dungeons & Dragons in Prison, a documentary about the American justice system, and those who fight for the right to play roleplaying games within it, to paraphrase the film’s byline. D&D is a game played by people all around the world, from kids at home, to active-duty members of the military, to people like Kevin T. Singer, who has fought for the right to play while incarcerated.
This project is helmed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Elisabeth de Kleer, who has produced work from stations as varied as the BBC, National Geographic, VICE, and Netflix. She tells this story from the perspective of inmates who have sued for the right to play D&D (or their roleplaying game of choice) while incarcerated, and raises the thorny question of what the purpose of the American prison system actually is. Are the prisons in our country designed to punish wrongdoers, and to remove them from lawful society? Or are they made to rehabilitate people and aid in their eventual return to society?
The promotional video for the Kickstarter campaign for Let's Play: Dungeons & Dragons in Prison
From handmade d20s to homebrew roleplaying games, those who play RPGs in prison must be creative in ways that many who play on the outside never have to be. And as anyone who’s played D&D knows, group creativity breeds friendship, nurtures communities, and creates a burning desire to return to the world of make-believe time and time again—especially when the real world is made of concrete walls and iron bars. "We were hardcore,” said a former inmate at a California correctional facility. “We’d play from soon as we got back from breakfast to lockup. Saturday or Sunday—all day long." For many people, playing D&D is more than just a way to have fun, it’s a way to stay in touch with your creativity and turn your mind towards constructive, positive rehabilitation—even when dice and D&D books are forbidden within prisons.
Jared Rudolph, one of the inmates interviewed in this video, went on to found the Prisoner Reentry Network, a non-profit located in Oakland, California, that helps former inmates return to everyday life—a task that goes far beyond simply acclimating to life without bars. A pivotal moment for the Prisoner Reentry Network was created when a group of prisoners about to be released from California State Prison – Solano was shown an interview with a former inmate, in order to help them prepare for life outside prison. One of the inmates recognized the person in the interview as an old buddy who he had played D&D with in prison—and the PRN decided to help reunite the former D&D party, using it as an opportunity to use D&D as a “therapeutic opportunity,” one that is “unrecognized…in California’s prisons.”
This isn’t the first time that Elisabeth de Kleer has tackled the topic of D&D behind bars. Her first forays into the topic were a pair of articles published on VICE: Dragons in the Department of Corrections and How Inmates Play Tabletop RPGs in Prisons Where Dice Are Contraband. How do inmates play D&D without dice? How do they play without books? These earlier articles are a bedrock foundation for understanding the experiences of RPG-playing inmates, but they’re not the be-all and end-all of the story. The upcoming Let’s Play documentary, which is in its final few days of funding on Kickstarter, is told through the mouths of inmates and former inmates, sharing their stories and experiences of playing D&D in correctional facilities around the United States.
A smaller-scale documentary project about gaming in prison produced by de Kleer for Waypoint in 2017
The Kickstarter campaign for Let’s Play: Dungeons & Dragons in Prison hasn’t been funded yet. It describes its funding needs as such:
- Fees for accessing and copying legal materials related to D&D cases. […]
- Cost of putting together a professional camera crew so we can film gaming groups inside prison. (We've already done the most difficult part, which is getting soft approval to film in the first place. Now we just need funding to make the most of this special opportunity.)
- Funds for hiring an animator to breathe life into hand-drawn inmate fantasy art and to create a visual style for the film. The art will be used to illustrate the story in a way that weaves together magical elements with real life. For example, the warden of the prison might be depicted as a dragon or “boss” and the prison itself, a dragon’s lair. These visual intersections of gameplay and real life show how the game becomes a platform to express and explore their inner struggles and demons.
- Creating a marketing and distribution plan that will promote both the film as well as recreational therapy behind bars.
This documentary’s Kickstarter campaign concludes on August 14, 2019 at 3 PM Pacific Time.
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the DM of Worlds Apart, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
Agreed, I didn't much care for that either. I don't see that as productive or respectful.
This is actually interesting.
No. Also, if you dont think these people are worth rehabilitation what would your propose we do to them?
Stone, interestingly I never said not to rehabilitate them. Some criminals I am sure are past rehibiliatation, or some don't deserve it. Some of course would benefit from rehilibation. What I said was I wasn't going to pay to put them on tv.
The end of the article said what the kickstarter money was for. It didn't say to make a program to rehibilate criminals. If you want to give money to make a reality tv show about criminals in prison playing d&d and would enjoy watching it good for you.
Please if you quote me, take what I say as a whole and don't twist a few sentences into what you believe is the totality of what I think of our prison system, which I believe is greatly flawed.
As a law-abiding citizen, I agree with this post for all the reasons listed.
However, as a role-player who sometimes imagines how I would survive if ever imprisoned, you bet your donkey I would figure out how to run a game. A mental escape is still escaping.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE call attention to the various states that ban D&D and all RPGs based on the intentionally misleading and outright false testimony that the GM/Dungeon Master has some authority over the players. Those that want to prevent inmates from playing tend to claim that the DM can tell players what to do OUTSIDE OF THE DYNAMIC OF THE GAME and that the game therefore constitutes a security threat. The people that make these claims know fully well that they are lying, and a documentary such as this is pointless if it doesn't shed light on this dishonest practice.
I began playing D&D at Varner Unit of the Arkansas Dept of Corrections (now the Arkansas Department of Community Correction) in 16 barracks under the most gifted DM I've yet to encounter (and that includes Mr. Mercer and Perksins, taking nothing away from them) named John Peeler. We played 2nd Edition towards the end of it's cycle with a wooden board that had circles drawn into it, and each circle sectioned off evenly into a 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20 value spinner. It worked wonderfully until we lost it. It wasnt hard to make mock-ups with the cardboard of a notebook, some tape, and a couple of paperclips, although our concentric circles weren't exactly as even as those drawn with protractor and compass.
You don't decide who does or doesn't deserve sympathy. You are no better than they are.
This is garbage. These inmates don't deserve play D&D. They should all be chained together and forced to do hard labor from sun up to sun set. Put that on TV and see if crime goes down...
Yes, actually, I am better than they are. Compare police records, and this fact is mathematically quantifiable.
Im just imagining the biggest meanest guy in the prison. (Face tattoos and everything)is playing Kassandra the warrior princess. With her animal side kick tofu the chicken
This is disgusting
Then I guess it would be a better cause to change the laws reducing the number of people in prison for 'minor' crimes. This completely glosses over the fact that they are in prison and not merely in jail. It's deceptive and intended to garner sympathy for evil people. Prison is not for rehabilitation. Personally, I'm for a biblical justice system that relies on Corporal, Capital and Restorative punishments. No need for prisons then.
Yea, for sure. We’re all just being deceptive to try and build sympathy for evil.... 🙄
You’re inspiring me to make a vengeance pally who thinks he’s lawful good but is actually lawful neutral, cause he judges most people to be human garbage.
Come on man, you know that's not what Most people are incarcerated for, right? Especially in the USA, Mass incarceration is rampant, especially for minor crimes. I'm not even American and it took me a total of maybe a minute to find that out. Not to mention that American mass incarceration happens at a palpable crossroad of class, race and social environment, you know almost as If it's a systemic Problem, Not a Personal one. But I digress. Countries like Norway and Switzerland have shown that Rehabilitation is more effektive than Mass incarceration. And D&D is a wonderful catalyst for Rehabilitation. Why oppose it so fervantly?
Careful with that Edge, my friend.
I read this as class (fighter), race (tiefling), and social environment (background).
On a slightly different note I completely agree, why should we oppose it so frevantly.
I Don't like to talk about this but I spent 8 years in prison. D&D was a huge component of my life during that time. It gave me a chance for life again. we would play all day on the weekends, using dice and miniatures made of paper, hand-drawn maps, fully homebrewed games, and the knowledge that if certain people who worked at the prison new that we were playing they would take the dice and miniatures and destroy them. I was the one who made the dice and it would take me hours to craft one set. I was also the primary DM for my group and was asked occasionally by others to run a game or a one-shot for them. D&D gave me the means to learn how to talk to people in situations that I normally would not have been able to. I have been out for over two years now, working a full-time job, going back to school to earn my bachelor's degree in small business management and entrepreneurship. I am working on a business plan that is based around D&D, this business will also allow me to have jobs for the people I played D&D with, giving them an opportunity for employment so they can also be successful at reintegrating into lawfull society. in my current life, I am running two games with old friends from before my time in, one of them involves a family member who I had become estranged with during that time of my life, we used D&D to repair and rebuild our family relationship.
I think that was very brave to admit, and frankly I'm very very glad that you were able to find a better path through gaming. People should be given the opportunity to find a better way.
I doubt everyone that is in prison and plays d&d is a case of wrongful imprisonment. Playing d&d in prison is fine with me. I, as I stated earlier, am against makeing a tv show about it.
Most people who go to prison in the American Judicial System aren't killers and rapists there people who got caught with small ass amounts of drugs or stole something and deserve the same rights that wee
we as in you because I'm a felon and I was in prison for possession of drugs came back out and rehabilitated myself D&D in prison was the best thing about my time