NEWS STORY: Supreme Court to Consider Prisoners’ Religious Rights

c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The right of prisoners to practice unusual religions behind bars will be at stake when the Supreme Court hears arguments Monday (March 21) about the constitutionality of a federal law. A Satanist, a Wiccan, an Asatru follower and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian say […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The right of prisoners to practice unusual religions behind bars will be at stake when the Supreme Court hears arguments Monday (March 21) about the constitutionality of a federal law.

A Satanist, a Wiccan, an Asatru follower and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian say prison guards refuse to give them access to religion-specific books and ceremonial items. The inmates, in a suit against the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, say that this violates their rights guaranteed by the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. The act makes it illegal to impose burdens on prisoners who want to practice their religion.


“There has been a tendency in Ohio to accommodate mainstream religious exercise and pay much less attention to the religious beliefs of non-mainstream religions,” said David Goldberger, lead attorney who will argue before the court for the Ohio inmates.

But Ohio prison officials say that RLUIPA should be invalidated, arguing that it amounts to an unconstitutional advancement of religion in state institutions because it “gives prisoners who clothe their demands in religious garb a benefit unavailable to other prisoners.”

They also contend that religions like Satanism and Asatru don’t deserve recognition because they advocate violence. Accommodating them is dangerous, they say, and could shatter law and order in prison by infusing prison life with violence and exacerbating the already violent dispositions of prisoners who may be involved in gang activity.

“RLUIPA gives prisoners a powerful weapon … the right to use religious demands … to force state prison officials to change the way they manage prisons,” said the Ohio legal brief.

But Goldberger said non-mainstream worshippers are hardly asking prisons to disavow all rules and regulations.

“Not every whim of someone based on their religious belief will be accommodated,” Goldberger said. He added that “the security interest can be accommodated at the same time that religious exercise is accommodated.”

Proponents of RLUIPA say the issue is about freedom of religion.

“You don’t lose your constitutional rights just because you’re in prison,” said Pierre C. Davis, archpriest and founder of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, a Wiccan church in Index, Wash., that has prison ministries nationwide.


Davis said religions like Wicca have been misunderstood.

“Prison staff seem to think that Wiccans and Pagans are some sort of demon worshippers,” he said.

Paul Rogers, president of the American Correctional Chaplains Association, said that developing a sense of spirituality and responsibility toward a higher power is key to reducing the rate of recidivism and helping inmates transition back into society after their release.

“Religious experience certainly makes for better citizens and aids in reintegration,” Rogers said.

In addition, he said, those who worry about violence associated with non-mainstream religions are overly fearful and should rely on the chaplains to do their jobs.

“As a professional chaplain,” Rogers said, “they’re going to know who these people are and if a gang member is going to try to infiltrate a group whether it’s a Catholic group, a Pagan group or a Buddhist group.”

MO/JL END RNS

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