RLUIPA Protects Religious Liberty in Prisons

Here are two recent posts from ReligionClause blog:

One

10th Circuit Rules For Native American Inmate In Cogent Review Of RLUIPA's Requirements

In a highly articulate 31-page opinion by Judge Gorsuch in Yellowbear v. Lampert, (10th Cir., Jan. 23, 2014), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday reviewed each element of a RLUIPA prisoner's rights claim and reversed the trial court's summary judgment against a Native American inmate. Here is the court's description of the case:

Andrew Yellowbear will probably spend the rest of his life in prison. Time he must serve for murdering his daughter. With that much lying behind and still before him, Mr. Yellowbear has found sustenance in his faith. No one doubts the sincerity of his religious beliefs.... 

That takes us to the nub of our case. Mr. Yellowbear, an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, seeks access to the prison’s existing sweat lodge to facilitate his religious exercises. The prison has refused. The prison’s sweat lodge is located in the general prison yard and Mr. Yellowbear is housed in a special protective unit (not because of any disciplinary infraction he has committed, but because of threats against him). Prison officials insist that the cost of providing the necessary security to take Mr. Yellowbear from the special protective unit to the sweat lodge and back is “unduly burdensome.” Mr. Yellowbear disagrees and seeks relief under RLUIPA. For its part, the district court discerned no statutory violation and entered summary judgment against Mr. Yellowbear. Mr. Yellowbear asks us to undo that judgment so that his case might proceed to trial.

At the end of the day, we find that’s exactly the relief we must provide.

AP reports on the decision. 

Two

Muslims Want Florida Prisons To Offer Halal Meals

Now that the Justice Department has won a preliminary injunction from a federal district court ordering Florida prisons to make kosher meals available by July 1 to all prisoners with a sincere religious basis for keeping kosher (see prior posting), Muslim groups are asking for Halal meals as well. In a press release yesterday, CAIR-Florida said:

We welcome the decision [on kosher food] as an important step in protecting religious rights of incarcerated individuals. It is only fair and equitable that if Jewish inmates receive kosher food, as they should, that Muslim inmates have access to halal meals. Muslim businesses in our state stand ready to offer the advice and services needed to provide halal meals to inmates.

According to the Huffington Post, Halal prison meals would cost only about one-third of the cost of kosher meals.

Three

Here is a little more on the cost of providing Kosher meals:

States Concerned Over Costs and Demand For Prison Kosher Food

Today's New York Times carries a front page story titled You Don’t Have to Be Jewish to Love a Kosher Prison Meal, focusing on the added cost to prison systems of serving kosher food ($7 per day vs. $1.54 in Florida) and the feigning of Jewish religious beliefs by some inmates in order to be placed on kosher diets:

Some states, like New York, do nothing to try to discern who is feigning Jewishness. In California, inmates talk with a rabbi who will gauge, very generally, a prisoner’s actual interest. 

But some Jewish groups in Florida are pushing for greater control, which may pose a difficult legal hurdle.