ANGOLA, La. (RNS) Many convicted killers seek solace in the Lord in their final days, and Donald Lee Leger is among them, only he wanted a Catholic Mass, not the Baptist service that blared on the TV sets at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Under a settlement reached with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Leger and other death-row inmates will have access to broadcasts of Catholic Mass, private confessions with a priest and the ability to receive Communion.
“If you are behind bars and you have limited contact with the outside world, the only thing you have is your spirituality,” said Katie Schwartzmann, an attorney for the ACLU, which sued on behalf of Leger. “Baptists had access to services that Catholic prisoners didn’t have.”
Under the agreement, other inmates will be given earphones to listen to Baptist services; the television’s speakers will be silenced.
It’s the second time in the past year that ACLU lawyers alleged deprivation of religious rights by the sprawling prison, which includes seven churches and a Bible College that offers degrees for 19 denominations.
The ACLU Foundation of Louisiana, based in New Orleans, sued the state last December in an effort to bring Muslim services to Angola. Leger’s suit said only one televised Mass was offered to inmates between June 16 and Dec. 31, 2008, while Baptist sermons were ubiquitous.
A prison spokeswoman said Angola wants to provide inmates with any religious services, books and programs they desire.
In a separate but related story, the ACLU is threatening legal action against a Virginia jail for censoring religious material sent to inmates from family members and friends.
Officials at the Rappahannock Regional Jail in Stafford, Va., are accused of confiscating a Christian magazine article and biblical passages sent from a mother to her imprisoned son. Authorities informed the son that the material was censored because of jail policies against “Internet pages” and “religious material from home.”
The ACLU wrote jail officials and said the practice is unconstitutional. The ACLU is demanding that the jail superintendent revise the prison’s policies to allow religious material in letters written to detainees.
