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Federal Judge Orders Kosher Meals At State Prisons
December 17, 2013
A federal judge has ordered the Florida Department of Corrections to offer kosher meals to “all prisoners with a sincere religious basis for keeping kosher” by July 1.
The little-noticed ruling, signed Dec. 5, grants the U.S. Department of Justice a preliminary injunction forcing the state agency to offer kosher meals and to drop some of the restrictions on a kosher program at one state facility.
“Injunctive relief is necessary to prevent irreparable harm to hundreds of Florida prisoners who believe that keeping kosher is an important part of their religious beliefs,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Seitz in her decision.
The lawsuit concerns the state’s Religious Diet Program, or RDP, currently in place only at Union Correctional Institution. According to Seitz’s ruling, the state has continuously changed its timeframe for expanding the program, first saying it would be available statewide this year, then saying kosher meals would be available at five institutions next month, and then announcing an implementation date for just three of those locations.
The state has also maintained that it is not required to offer kosher meals under federal laws protecting religious liberty.
Seitz barred DOC from enforcing four rules used in the kosher program at Union:
–A 90-day waiting period that the state said it will no longer enforce.
–A requirement that inmates undergo a “test” to determine whether they qualify for the program, including answering a question about the specific religious laws that require them to eat kosher.
–The “10 percent rule,” which drops a prisoner who fails to eat at least 90 percent of his or her meals.
–The “zero-tolerance rule,” which removes an inmate from the program for a period of time if he or she is found to eat something prison officials say is not kosher.
The state has argued that offering kosher meals at every prison could become prohibitively expensive. If enrollment were the same as an old program offering kosher food, it would cost the state less than $1.1 million a year. But the Union program has an unexpectedly high enrollment, which could result in a cost of almost $54.1 million if it went statewide, according to Seitz’s ruling.
But she said there were suspicions that the interest in the program at Union might not have had to do with religious fervor and could eventually decline.
“Thus, it appears that the high participation rate will not be maintained as the RDP continues and the ‘bugs’ in the system, which currently have made the RDP more desirable than standard prison fare, are worked out,” she wrote.
In a filing dated last week, though, the state continued to argue that the policy would cost too much.
“To the extent that FDOC’s dietary policies impose a substantial burden on a prisoner’s religious practices, the FDOC asserts that the policies are in furtherance of compelling governmental interests in preserving the security and good order of its institutions and in allocating scarce governmental resources and that these policies reflect the least restrictive means of furthering those interests,” the filing says.
A trial in the case is scheduled to begin Aug. 25.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Comments
14 Responses to “Federal Judge Orders Kosher Meals At State Prisons”
Kosher food started under the old jewish levitical law, if they want to go by that law than let them be judged by it as well. By disobeying your parents the penalty was to be stoned to death.
Give them a couple slices of bread, a cup of water and let them do whatever prayer they want over it prior to eating it.
Isn’t pea soup Kosher?
THEY ARE IN JAIL!!!!! In my opinion, theirs rights were taken away when they did not walk the line everyone else has to walk. I for one DO NOT CARE what they will or will not eat. Maybe they should be a decent member of society and then they can make their own decisions again. We allow abused children to go back to their crappy abusive parents but if they kill them and end up in jail, we will make sure their needs are met. I hope no one wonders why our world is in rapid decline.
I have worked in Prisons and Jails. I have caught inmates who said they were Muslims and want to participate in Ramadan. Ramada time is where you do not eat during the daylight. I have caught many inmates who eat off other inmates trays during this time period during daylight hours. It is a way to getting extra food from the kitchen. This is no more than a gimmick those inmates use to manipulate the system. Eric Holder and Judges have never worked in or around inmates. If they had, they would now when an inmate is trying to be manipulative. We would also get back to serving your time the hard way. One last thought, what about the jail in AZ? I wonder what Sheriff Joe would tell DOJ if they told him to server kosher and not bologna sandwiches.….
What happened to bread & water ?
This ruling is just STUPID.
Again, I feel like these judges should have the inmates in their homes working.
In this case the cooks should be fixing Kosher for the judge and his kin and let’s see how that works out.
Sleep easy ya honor, the cook is in the kitchen with utensils.
Political correctness has run-amok. The camel’s nose is way past the tent flap. Some people might understand that statement. Or, at a certain point, it is way too late to close the barn door. Just trying to touch base with all beliefs…darn sure don’t want to offend anyone.
Said it before, will probably say itanother million times. “You just cant fix stupid”. Even when its a govt. official. If you dont like what they serve in prison, DONT BREAK THE LAW! Geez. In Japan you get fish heads and rice. Dont like it, dont eat it. I promise, you will get hungry enough to eat whatever is in front of you eventually. If we MUST offer kosher food? Well PB&J and Ramen noodles are kosher. And cheap too.
I wonder how many of these inmates would stick with a Kosher diet if you put out a huge tray of BBQ pork ribs and another tray of pulled pork from one of the really good BBQ places? That would really test their sincerity!
Another incremental part of the plan. Wake up America!!!!!!!!!!
I hope everone noticed that Our US Dept. of Justice {Eric Holder} was the one that filed this frivilous lawsuit. As if our prison system doesn’t have enough to deal with, now they deal with lawsuits instigated by our own Federal Governmant
It doesn’t seem like these criminals were particularly concerned with “Kosher Foods”, or any other religious beliefs when they committed their crimes. Let em eat what is served, or they can fast that day to attone for their sins. Next thing, the Judges will require that the State of Fl. operate cook to order resturants so that every convict’s whim is satisfied.
Here is another case of a judge gone wild, or losing her mind. Prison is not a church function.