THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603310049
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LaFAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
Virginia prison officials, saying they are swamped with inmate requests for special Jewish and Islamic diets, will soon require proof 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 the Department of Corrections. As of late March, 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.
Religious officials 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, said Balaban, 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 can be eaten. In observant Jewish homes, meat and milk products are prepared and served separately.
The consumption of pork and 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, Kosher and Nation of Islam-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 members of the Nation of Islam. 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. Nation of Islam 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 would then decide whether an inmate should be transferred to Buckingham. Anyone approved by the committee then signed a contract pledging adherence to the diet.
``Your compliance will be monitored,'' the contract states.
``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- (7) 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.
In a letter written from Buckingham, five inmates who say they are Jewish and need kosher diets complained that they have been locked up so long that they ``have lost all contact with society in general and do not have the ability or any idea on how to get in contact with a rabbi.''
``Further,'' they wrote, ``no rabbis have even been to this institution for many years to offer any religious counseling to the inmates . . . ''
One of the five, Mitchell B. Dunlow, wrote that he is currently getting a kosher diet, although he is not ``of Jewish descent by birth.''
``However, I study and believe in the ways of the Torah and follow the dietary laws of Kashrut,'' he wrote.
Under the new policy, Dunlow will be ineligible for a kosher diet.
``The kosher diet is reserved for Orthodox Jews who take kosher only,'' said Dow. Inmates who have trouble locating a religious leader to certify the sincerity of their beliefs can ask the prison system for help, she said.
Jean Auldridge, director of the Virginia chapter of the prison advocacy group, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, said the prison system should encourage inmates' efforts to adhere to religions.
``Why would anyone fake being Jewish or Islamic just to get a frozen dinner?'' she said. ``Religion keeps inmates in touch with a community and they need to keep their ties with their community so they can function when they are released.'' by CNB