ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604010060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA LAFAY LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
INMATES SOON will have to prove that their religious beliefs require a special diet.
Virginia prison officials, saying they are swamped with inmate requests for special Jewish and Islamic diets, will soon require proof of the sincerity of an inmate's religious beliefs before agreeing to provide the appropriate food.
At the end of 1994, only 88 inmates were getting religious diets, according to statistics provided by the Department of Corrections. As of this month, the number had jumped to 382.
Those inmates will see the special diets discontinued May 1 if they have not supplied the department with a written statement from a rabbi or an imam indicating that ``the inmate sincerely holds these religious beliefs and requires a kosher or Nation of Islam diet,'' according to a Department of Corrections memo outlining the new policy.
Clerics who vouch for inmates' beliefs must provide ``credentials'' - written evidence attesting to their qualifications - to the Department of Corrections, said the memo.
The policy will also affect inmates seeking to get a religious diet for the first time.
Critics say the new policy violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law that forbids governments from substantially burdening a person's exercise of religion.
That means ``forcing someone to either act or not to act in violation of a central tenet of their religious beliefs,'' said Eric Balaban, an attorney with the National Prison Project in Washington.
Unless a religiously restrictive policy serves a compelling government interest in the least restrictive way possible, Balaban said, it violates the law.
Department of Corrections Community Resource Manager Janice Dow disagrees.
``Basically, what we're saying is that the required verification is intended to serve as a screening function to make sure the inmate's request is motivated by sincerely held beliefs,'' she said.
``We don't want to deprive anyone of a diet they need for their particular religious beliefs.''
Jewish law dictates a kosher, or ``proper,'' diet, excluding, among other foods, pork and shellfish. It also regulates the manner in which food animals are slaughtered, how they must be examined for disease and how soon afterward they are to be eaten. In observant Jewish homes, meat and dairy products are prepared and served separately.
The consumption of pork and of animal blood is also forbidden by Islamic law. As in Jewish law, animals must be slaughtered by cutting their throats while saying a blessing.
In Virginia, religiously appropriate meals are served at only one prison, Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn. The higher cost of religious meals, combined with the cost of transferring approved inmates to Buckingham, prompted the new policy, Dow said.
Of the 382 inmates now on religious diets at Buckingham, 231 get kosher meals and 151 get food appropriate for Muslims. Meanwhile, more than 100 inmates in other prisons are waiting to be transferred to Buckingham to get on the list.
Kosher meals, which are purchased already prepared and frozen, cost the department $7 per day per inmate, according to Dow. Islamic meals cost about $4 a day. The price of a regular diet is about $3 a day, she said.
Under the Department of Corrections' existing religious diet policy, inmates interested in religious diets must request a hearing before a committee of prison personnel. That committee then decides whether an inmate should be transferred to Buckingham. Anyone approved by the committee then signs a contract pledging adherence to the diet.
``Your compliance will be monitored,'' the contract intones.
``Should you violate the conditions of the diet, you will be reviewed for possible removal. If you are observed picking up, in possession of, eating, and/or drinking any food items not on the diet, you will be considered in violation of the diet. If you fail to pick up at least 50 percent ... of the meals on the diet in any seven ... day period, you will be considered in violation of the diet. These requirements will be strictly enforced.''
Inmates and their advocates say the old policy was strict enough. The new rules, they maintain, are arbitrarily punitive and make compliance difficult.
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