Toto
August 19, 2003, 03:11 AM
This is where the Religious Land Use and Incarcerated Persons Act has led:
Inmates Are Free to Practice Black Supremacist Religion, Judge Rules (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/18/nyregion/18PRIS.html)
. . . .Mr. Allah is a Five Percenter, part of a black militant group that broke from the Nation of Islam in the 1960's. The New York State prison system has long regarded it as a violence-prone gang, much as the system also regards the Latin Kings, Crips or the Aryan Brotherhood. The name derives from the concept that only 5 percent of the world's people break free from the worship of a false "mystery God" and become gods to themselves and their families.
But on July 31, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that Mr. Allah is entitled to the same religious freedoms as the thousands of practicing Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hare Krishnas and Wiccans incarcerated in New York State's prisons.
. . .
Judge Buchwald also ordered state prison officials to report back to her within 60 days on their progress in accommodating Five Percenter requests for monthly "parliament" meetings; special prison dinner menus and post-sundown cafeteria schedules during periods of fasting; and special celebrations during Five Percenter holy days, including the birthdays of Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam founder, and Clarence 13X Smith, the founder of the Nation of Gods and Earths.
. . .
In many states, prison officials track "security threat groups," as jailed members of a handful of gangs and supremacist organizations are commonly called. Five Percenters have challenged prison restrictions in other states with little success. In 1999, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that South Carolina's prison system was justified in treating Five Percenters as dangerous gang members. Last year, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld disciplinary rules in New Jersey that punish any prisoners possessing The Five Percenter, a Nation of Gods and Earths newspaper, or even discussing aspects of their beliefs.
. . .
"New York didn't put in much evidence that these guys were doing anything bad," he said in a telephone interview on Friday. In the lawsuits in South Carolina and New Jersey, defense lawyers produced evidence of Five Percenters attacking correction officers and fighting with other inmates. "If, in another state, the prison system put together a long list of violent acts committed by members of this group," Professor Laycock added, "it's easy for that judge to say, 'If they're out there hurting people, I don't care if they're a religion or not.' "
Inmates Are Free to Practice Black Supremacist Religion, Judge Rules (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/18/nyregion/18PRIS.html)
. . . .Mr. Allah is a Five Percenter, part of a black militant group that broke from the Nation of Islam in the 1960's. The New York State prison system has long regarded it as a violence-prone gang, much as the system also regards the Latin Kings, Crips or the Aryan Brotherhood. The name derives from the concept that only 5 percent of the world's people break free from the worship of a false "mystery God" and become gods to themselves and their families.
But on July 31, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that Mr. Allah is entitled to the same religious freedoms as the thousands of practicing Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hare Krishnas and Wiccans incarcerated in New York State's prisons.
. . .
Judge Buchwald also ordered state prison officials to report back to her within 60 days on their progress in accommodating Five Percenter requests for monthly "parliament" meetings; special prison dinner menus and post-sundown cafeteria schedules during periods of fasting; and special celebrations during Five Percenter holy days, including the birthdays of Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam founder, and Clarence 13X Smith, the founder of the Nation of Gods and Earths.
. . .
In many states, prison officials track "security threat groups," as jailed members of a handful of gangs and supremacist organizations are commonly called. Five Percenters have challenged prison restrictions in other states with little success. In 1999, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that South Carolina's prison system was justified in treating Five Percenters as dangerous gang members. Last year, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld disciplinary rules in New Jersey that punish any prisoners possessing The Five Percenter, a Nation of Gods and Earths newspaper, or even discussing aspects of their beliefs.
. . .
"New York didn't put in much evidence that these guys were doing anything bad," he said in a telephone interview on Friday. In the lawsuits in South Carolina and New Jersey, defense lawyers produced evidence of Five Percenters attacking correction officers and fighting with other inmates. "If, in another state, the prison system put together a long list of violent acts committed by members of this group," Professor Laycock added, "it's easy for that judge to say, 'If they're out there hurting people, I don't care if they're a religion or not.' "