PAGE 8 EL UVALDE TIMES August 9, 1979 Religious Rights For Prisoners (This news-feature was researched and written by David Stotter, summer student-intern from George Washington University's National Law Center) WASHINGTON, D.C.--Pioneer Quaker William Penn believed prison to be a sanctuary where man could cogitate about his salvation, become reacquainted with God, and do penance. But is an inmate entitled to cogitate over a special kosher menu? Can he become reacquainted with God while high on peyote? Can an American Indian prisoner build his own “sweatlodge” to do penance? Two hundred years after Penn the nations courts and prison experts are joining in an escalating debate over whether incarcerated men and women should be allowed to observe the most basic tenets-and some provocative new ones-of their religious faith. Because of discrimination complaints lodged by Muslims, Jews, American Indians and others, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has, for the first time in its 21-year history, put a national focus on the matter. As a cautious first step, the Federal factfinding body convened a consultation of national experts in Washington, D.C. this spring. While examining the impact and implications of religious discrimination nationally, the conferees also debated the issue: to what degree is the free-exercise-of-religion clause of the First Amendment subordinate to the interests of maintaining prison security, enforcing inmate discipline and avoiding administrative inconvenience and expense. Larry Taylor, warden at the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, California, told the commissioners that in a facility where 4,800 meals a day are served to prisoners, “special dietary UVALDE DAYTON & TIRE FURNITURE air-conditioners in stock almacén Ray Romo Jr. 278-6674 213 W. Main Street arrangements p resen t difficult administrative, budgetary and time problems.” But recent court decisions have required prison officials to accomodate the dietary needs of Black Muslims and Orthodox Jews whose religion forbids them to eat pork. Marc Stern, an attorney who has successfully represented prisoners get “favored” treatment. A prisoner can “get stabbed in the back over a kosher TV dinner,” he said. Warden Taylor also commented, “Whatever we do for one religious group, we must be willing to do for all religious groups.” Other prison officials complained that they’re now receiving some spurious dietary requests. Alvin Bronstein, Director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, found a “subtler, yet more pervasive problem than the free exercise clause:” the First Amendment prohibition forbidding the government from gran ting preferen tial treatment to a religion. Bronstein cited the practice of recording attendance at religious functions on an inmate s prison record. “What troubles me.” he said, “is if these notations are in the files, it is hightly conceivable that parole decisions may be made based upon a prisoner’s nonattendance at religious activities.” “It is equally unfair not to note an inmate’s religious activities for parole purposes,” Clair Cripe, General Counsel for the Bureau of Prisons, said, since this provides “the complete picture of what an inmate is doing.” Another official added that such records are necessary to calculate prison budgets. When Indian inmates of the Native American Church wanted a sweatlodge at Lompoc, Warden Taylor’s immediate reaction was “No, because we didn’t know anything about sweatlodges.” A sweatlodge is a small wooden hut covered with blankets or a tarp which provides an effect similar to a sauna. Virtually all tribes in this country use it as part of a purification ceremony. Faced with a court suit, Taylor’s staff did more research and relented to the inmates’ demands. “We had to be concerned about what kind of precedent we set,” said Taylor. “We don't build synagogues for Jews or mosques for the Muslims in our population.” The Native American Church believes peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus plant, is both a sacramental object, similar to the bread and wine in certain Christian churches, and is in itself an object of worship much like the Holy Ghost. It’s not permitted in prison, but Walter Echo-Hawk, staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, said Native American Church members are discriminated against because they are prohibited from using peyote while on parole, even though Federal law permits its use for bona fide religious purposes outside of prison. William Collins, an American Correctional Association official, said it is not always easy to define what is a legitimate religion. He cited the Church of the New Song (CONS), an inmate-created religion which one court charact-one court characterized as a “non-struct-ured, free-form, do-as-you-please philosophy, the sole purpose of which is to cause disruption of established prison discipline for the sake of disruption.’ When co < rectional officials attempted to suppress the incipient church, its founder, federal prisoner Harry Theriault, brought a free exercise suit against the Atlanta, Georgia penitentiary. A District Court held J% ento ibanicos ido en that until CONS demonstrated otherwise, the movement was to be considered a bona fide religion. Shortly after this victroy, a sect within the Church nearly provided such a demonstration by making a formal request to the Federal Bureau of Prisons for 700 poterhouse steaks and 98 bottles of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry to celebrate the sects’s rituals. While Theriault immediately proclaimed the request “unsanctioned,” officials in other prisons have forced many CONS chapters to go to court to prove their sincerity; so far, the courts have reached contradictory decisions. Litigation frequently occurs when prison regulations governing personal appearance conflict with the tenets of an inmate’s religion. Some religions require adherents to wear long hair and beards, requirements that prison officials said hinder prisoner identification while also providing inmates a way to conceal weapons and contraband. Conferees also discussed the difficulty of scheduling prayer hours so that they do not interfere with prison routine. Warden Taylor told of a Lompoc inmate who believed in chanting at sunrise. Distrubed by the noise, a fellow inmate assualted the chanter. The multitude of unresolved issues which were raised prompted the Correctional Associations’s Collins to comment that judicial clarification is needed. “What is the test? The courts have yet to clearly decide what scale is to be used in balancing the religious demand of an inmate and the demands of a correctional institution.” William Penn, where are you now that we need you? “EL UVALDE TIMES” is sold at the following stores: In Uvalde:e: Hillcrest Ice House So. Evans Grocery Sanchez Grocery Highway 83 Grocery Minit Mart No. 5 Southside Grocery Circle K (So. Getty) Circle K (E. Main) Gibsons SuperS Foods Minit Mart No. 7 Wallgreens Drugs Minit Mart No. 8 Flavils Highway 55 Grocery F & M Grocery S & L Wondermart Minit Mart No. 6 Santos Drug Flores Food Market La Gitana La Fama Bakery Aguilar Bakery Arroyos Grocery In Batesville: Luna’s Shamrock Aguirre Grocery Roadrunner Cafe In La Pryor: The Ice Box Perez Grocery Salazar Cash & Carry Inflation......... there are “specials** ON MEAT* WE RE LIKELY TO SAVE MORE MONEY PER ITEM THAN WE WOULD ON MOST OTHER “specials.” Fact 4—Cuts of meat in the least demand are almost always the cheapest. 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