ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 9, 1996 TAG: 9608090034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
Rahim X, the Muslim prisoner who took on the Virginia prison system's religious diet policy and won, is back in court again.
He's asking U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson to hold his warden and other prison administrators in contempt of court for continuing to enforce a policy that Wilson ruled unconstitutional.
Department of Corrections officials adopted a policy in the spring that required Jewish and Nation of Islam prisoners who want a special diet to provide documentation from approved clergy that their religious beliefs are sincere.
Rahim X, a 25-year-old who has been incarcerated since he was 17, represented himself when he challenged that policy in court. He argued that having to find a Muslim imam to attest to his sincerity was "an unreasonable roadblock to [his] exercise of religion."
Wilson decided the issue on other grounds, however. Deciding who qualifies for a special diet is a prison administrator's responsibility and cannot be shifted to outside clergy, he ruled. To do so would violate the establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment, he said.
Wilson, who heard the case in Roanoke, ordered the state to stop enforcing the new policy. Rather than appeal, the state dropped the policy.
After the ruling, Rahim X got his Nation of Islam diet. But he charges that Buckingham Correctional Center continued to deny other prisoners special diets.
In response to his motion for contempt, an assistant attorney general representing the state responded that the policy continued to be enforced because of "confusion" by Buckingham officials.
Mark Davis assured the judge that as soon as he received Rahim X's motion last week, he "immediately" corrected the problem.
"Action has been taken to ensure that officials at Buckingham fully and completely understand that they are in no manner whatever to enforce the rescinded policy," Davis told the judge in a response Wednesday.
Buckingham's warden, who was a defendant in the case, is no longer at the prison, possibly contributing to the confusion over the new policy, Davis said.
Buckingham is the only state prison that provides special kosher and Nation of Islam diets. All inmates in the state who are approved for the diets are transferred there.
The Department of Corrections' new policy to decide who qualifies for special diets will be based on a variety of criteria, spokesman David Botkins said. That includes whether an inmate attends religious services, whether his name appears on the roster of religious groups, how long he claims to have been a believer and whether he observed the religion before being incarcerated.
The state had argued that the diet policy was being abused and that the requirement that clergy must vouch for inmates' sincerity was an attempt to limit the diets to true adherents.
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