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  • Ohio Congresswoman Shontel Brown, other Congressional Dems, introduce ‘Prisons Library Act’ to reduce recidivism and expand educational opportunities for the nation’s incarcerated…More than 38% of the prison population is Black…By Clevelandurbannews

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    Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Shontel Brown (OH-11)

    Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

     

    Washington, DC – Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Shontel Brown (D-11), a Warrensville Hts. Democrat and one of three Black women in Congress from Ohio, joined U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO) and Valerie Foushee (D-NC) to re-introduce the Prison Libraries Act to expand library resources in U.S. state and territory correctional facilities.

    The legislation aims to increase educational opportunities, advance reintegration efforts, and reduce recidivism. It will authorize federal funds for state prisons to expand library resources and services to support the education and skills training of incarcerated Americans.

    Notwithstanding institutional racism, Black adults comprise some 38% of the total U.S. prison population, data show, despite representing only about 13% of the overall U.S. population. Moreover, Black Americans are incarcerated at a rate roughly five times that of White Americans, if not more.

    The official text of the Prison Libraries Act is available here.

    “Everyone deserves to have access to learning, ideas, and information no matter where they are,” said Congresswoman Brown, whose 11th congressional district includes the majority Black city of Cleveland. “The Prison Libraries Act would help give incarcerated community members the resources they need to pursue knowledge and development opportunities they would not have otherwise received.”

    Brown said that when people have access to education and information, they’re better equipped to succeed when they come home, and our communities are safer and stronger. Congresswoman Clever agreed.

    “America’s correctional system is far too often focused on punishment rather than rehabilitation,” said Congressman Cleaver. “The Prison Libraries Act is an attempt to shift this dynamic, providing incarcerated Americans with increased access to education and skills training services that will better prepare them for reintegration into society.”

    Over 600,000 individuals are released from federal and state prisons each year. Upon release, these individuals often struggle to reintegrate into their communities. This struggle is exacerbated by prisons often offering incarcerated individuals little to no educational or job training opportunities. The lack of such resourceful opportunities affects formerly incarcerated individuals’ ability to find gainful employment once released and increases the likelihood of recidivism.

    “Libraries give everyone the chance to learn and grow, yet many correctional facilities lack the infrastructure to provide these essential resources,” said Congresswoman Valerie Foushee. “To reduce recidivism and support successful reintegration, our justice system must provide incarcerated individuals with ways to prepare for life after release. I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing the Prison Libraries Act.”

    Libraries are one of the most powerful and transformative resources against recidivism, but they tend to be substantially underutilized, scarce, insufficiently funded, and inadequately equipped with learning, training, information, and communication materials and technologies in American jails and prisons.

    In 2025, the American Library Association reported that the Ohio Reformatory for Women provided just two reentry computers for a population of 2,300 women. These reentry computers allowed women to create resumes and search for incarceration-friendly employers.

    The Prison Libraries Act would authorize a competitive grant program for state and U.S. territory prisons to:

    -Offer adequate library services, including education and job training, digital literacy, career readiness programming, and computer and internet access, among other services, for free;

    -Invest in acquiring updated materials and equipment that reflect the prison population’s interests, identities, abilities, and languages;

    -Expand the infrastructure of prison libraries.

    -Hire well-trained and qualified staff to manage libraries, their resources, and services; and,

    -Build a collaborative relationship with the respective local public libraries.

    The Prison Libraries Act is cosponsored by U.S. Reps. Ed Case (D-HI), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Cleo Fields (D-LA), Dwight Evans (D-PA), Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Julie Johnson (D-TX), Summer Lee (D-PA), LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), Emily Randall (D-WA), David Scott (D-GA), Terri Sewell (D-AL), Lateefah Simon (D-CA), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Bennie Thompson (D-MS).

    Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and the Midwest. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

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    editor@clevelandurbannews.com (Kathy)

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  • Pathfinder’s War of Immortals includes the first new character classes designed without the OGL

    Pathfinder’s War of Immortals includes the first new character classes designed without the OGL

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    Paizo, fresh off a highly-anticipated refresh of Pathfinder’s 2nd edition ruleset, announced some big moves for the game’s ongoing narrative on Tuesday. The War of Immortals meta-event will kill a god, span multiple rulebooks, and restart the publisher’s line of hardcover novels. It will also introduce the first two original classes built following the company’s formal departure from the legacy Dungeons & Dragons ruleset and the OGL.

    At the center of the new narrative arc will be Pathfinder War of Immortals, a 240-page hardcover rulebook expected in October that will introduce “mythic rules” for Pathfinder Second Edition. These rules should function similarly to past mythic-tier content, which represented ways to make your high-level characters stand out with powerful boons and abilities. According to a news release, the book will also include two new character classes — the animist and the exemplar — which are “the first original classes built on the remastered foundation of Pathfinder Player Core.”

    (Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core were released in November 2023. The team moved the game off of Wizards of the Coast’s Open Game License (also known as the OGL), which had allowed the original version of Pathfinder Second Edition to use some legacy materials from D&D, following Wizards’ attempts to change that agreement. Paizo now publishes its fantasy TTRPG under its own license, called the Open RPG Creative (ORC) License. You can read more about that transition in Polygon’s interview with publisher Eric Mona.)

    Next, Pathfinder Lost Omens: Divine Mysteries is a setting book with a smattering of character options — not unlike Pathfinder Lost Omens: Tian Xia World Guide detailed here at Polygon in March. Instead of a guide to an entire region, however, this 320-page hardcover will include a remastered pantheon of deities. It will also feature new deities, such as Aleph, god of darkness, and Nin, god of vampires. The $79.99 book is expected in November.

    Several new adventures are included in the War of Immortals arc. Pathfinder Adventure: Prey for Death is a standalone 128-page adventure for high-level characters (level 14 and above). Expect the larger-than-usual, hardcover format to make a splash when it is released at Gen Con on Aug. 1, 2024.

    Two even larger campaigns are also on the docket.

    Pathfinder Adventure Path: Curtain Call — Pathfinder’s 40th since its launch in 2009 — will take characters from level 11 all the way to 20. The episodic release will begin at Gen Con with Pathfinder Adventure Path #204: Stage Fright and will conclude in September. Pathfinder Adventure Path: Triumph of the Tusk, which has players fighting alongside a band of orcs, will pick up in October with Pathfinder Adventure Path #207: The Resurrection Flood and continue into December.

    Both Adventure Paths are included in their entirety as part of the Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscription.

    Finally, a new novel titled Pathfinder: Godsrain, written by Liane Merciel, is also due out in November. Paizo said in its news release that the book will follow “four iconic heroes — the wizard Ezren, the barbarian Amiri, the cleric Kyra, and her wife, the rogue Merisiel — as they witness the calamity of the Godsrain and are faced with the opportunities — and consequences — of mythic power.”

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    Charlie Hall

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