ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 17, 1996 TAG: 9606170008
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
AN INMATE IS FIGHTING prison officials over a new dietary policy that makes it harder for Jewish and Muslim inmates to get special diets that conform to their religious restrictions.
By the time Rahim X's dinner meat made it to the clerk's office in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, the slab of ham marked "Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 2" was five days old.
Prison officials were trying to trick him into believing it was "turkey ham," Rahim X said in a motion accompanying the meat, but he knew it was pork. He asked if the court would have a lab analyze it.
Instead, the deputy clerk who opened the mail tossed it. And she sent a tersely worded memo to the inmate, telling him: "We do not appreciate receiving unrefrigerated food through the mail."
Besides, the clerk's office usually accepts only paper exhibits with lawsuits.
Rahim X, also known as Richard Harris, is suing prison officials over a new dietary policy that makes it harder for Jewish and Muslim inmates to get special diets that conform to their religious restrictions.
He is an inmate at Buckingham Correctional Center in Dillwyn, the only prison where the special meals are provided. He has been convicted of robbery and assaulting a prison staff member.
Part of the new policy requires inmates to get outside clergy to vouch for the inmates' religious sincerity and requires the clergy to submit their credentials for review.
This month, U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting prison officials from enforcing that part of the policy.
Today, Rahim X will ask Wilson to issue a longer-lasting injunction that forbids the prison from enforcing the policy until his suit goes to trial. State officials said they will oppose that request.
Wilson ruled that requiring clergy to vouch for the sincerity of an inmate's beliefs violated the First Amendment. The Virginia Department of Corrections contends that prisoners are abusing the diet policy and the staff needs some way to verify that diet requests are sincere.
Rahim X also alleges a conspiracy by prison kitchen staff to lie to Muslim prisoners so the staff doesn't have to prepare additional trays.
"Pork items are very often misidentified here and not by accident," he said in court papers. "Staff here at Buckingham are not only indifferent but hostile to the dietary requirements of Muslim prisoners such as myself."
The only way to prove this, he said, is to have the ham tested.
"This is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard," said Department of Corrections spokesman David Botkins.
Buckingham was on lockdown during the time Rahim X was served ham, meaning all meals are delivered to inmates in their cells. Because the Muslim and Jewish population is so high at Buckingham - 40 percent of the 946 inmates - all ham served during lockdown is turkey ham to make preparation easier, Botkins said.
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