Nebraska "Judge orders prison to meet religious diet needs"

From the National Paper of Record:

Tecumseh State Correctional Institution officials and a Muslim inmate are attempting to revise food service at the prison so the inmate can have access to kosher foods.

U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon ordered the revision after the inmate, Mohamed El-Tabech, sued corrections officials under the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Land Use and Institutional Persons Act.

The 2000 act prohibits governments from imposing a substantial burden on inmates’ religious practices without a “compelling governmental interest” and unless the burden is the least restrictive to achieve that interest.

El-Tabech said in the 2004 lawsuit that prison officials were violating his rights under the Constitution and the act by denying him access to a kosher diet and interfering with his prayer schedule. El-Tabech, 49, also claimed he needed to shower daily in keeping with beliefs he based on the Quran. He is currently permitted three or four showers a week.

Bataillon held a non-jury trial on the lawsuit was in
Omaha in May.

Attorneys for the state argued El-Tabech’s diet requests would
increase the costs of food and food preparation, and might create a perception of favoritism among other inmates. In addition, the state said that El-Tabech’s food request, if granted by the judge, could trigger an increase in religious
diet requests from other inmates.

Bataillon said in an order last month that the state failed to offer any evidence about the economic consequences of providing
inmates kosher meals or kosher items at the canteen.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services does not provide a kosher food option for any inmates at present, the judge said in the order.

Prisoners can abstain from eating religiously prohibited foods and still maintain a nutritionally adequate diet, and they can order items through the canteen, although, Bataillon wrote, “It is not possible to know what foods are kosher before ordering.”

The judge also noted that the defendants are already furnishing prisoners kosher meals at Ramadan “without incident or impact.”

“According to evidence already adduced at trial, ready alternatives already exist to satisfy El-Tabech’s dietary requirements at a (minimal) cost to the prison,” he wrote.

Bataillon gave the state and El-Tabech 60 days from July 17 to decide on the feasibility of modifying the canteen list to indicate kosher items and offering El-Tabech or any other inmates prepackaged kosher meals.

In addition, the judge ordered the parties to consider offering
inmates kosher foods — boiled eggs, uncut or unpeeled fruits and vegetables, for
example — that are already available in the kitchen.

Bataillon rejected El-Tabech’s request for daily showers, writing that the sink in his cell was a “reasonable alternative” on non-shower days.

The judge ordered that El-Tabech’s prayer schedule be posted so that guards can modify activities to reduce disturbances to El-Tabech’s prayer. Bataillon said he did not expect the Tecumseh to alter prison schedules to accommodate El-Tabech’s prayers, however.

Attorneys for El-Tabech could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Holley Hatt, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jon Bruning, said she expected the prison to meet the judge’s deadline.

El-Tabech, formerly of Lincoln, began serving a life sentence in 1985 for the murder of his wife, Lynn El-Tabech.