THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 TAG: 9702180473
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: 24 lines
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act figured in a controversy over a dietary policy in the Virginia prison system that was blocked by a federal judge last year.
Critics cited the law in challenging a Virginia policy that required proof of an inmate's religious beliefs before he could be provided a special diet.
Prison officials, saying they had been swamped with inmate requests for special Jewish and Islamic diets, instituted a policy in March 1996 requiring such inmates to supply a written statement from a rabbi or imam indicating that ``the inmate sincerely holds these religious beliefs and requires a kosher or Nation of Islam diet.''
In June, U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson issued an injunction barring the policy from being implemented.
A prison official testified that special diet requests had grown from fewer than 40 a few years ago to 450.
KEYWORDS: PRISON POPULATION VIRGINIA