York, PA – Officials at a central Pennsylvania prison say some inmates are falsely claiming to be Jewish in order to get kosher meals.
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Warden Mary Sabol says that has led to a dramatic spike in food costs at the York County Prison.
County acting solicitor Donald Reihart says officials must honor valid religious conversions. But he says that’s not the case with many inmates.
Reihart says some prisoners game the system because they think kosher meals taste better than regular ones. Officials dispute any quality difference.
A prison spokesman says kosher meals are prepared outside the facility while regular ones are made on-site. The type of food varies on a pre-set schedule.
The prison has about 2,300 inmates. According to the York Daily Record (http://bit.ly/VKMzFz), more than 140 are requesting kosher meals.
Well, duh. I know of people who ask for kosher meals on airplanes on the perception that the food is better. If we offer two menus, people will ask for the one that is of higher quality. Feed prisoners well is what we pay the jailers to do. They need to stop whining about how hard their job is.
This is not the kind of kiruv we should be endorsing. There is no way of knowing if each of these 120 inmates are truly bnai torah and shomer kashruth. As a taxpayer, I don’t want to be paying for catered meals with eidah hashgacha for a bunch of goyim serving time for felonies. Its bad enough we have to do that for yiddeshe felons
If a person claims to be Jewish, we are generally supposed to believe them (Rambam paskens that we investigate if they want to get married, though). Legally, nothing can be done to stop this, as the First Amendment guarantees religious freedom.
Simple solution: anyone claiming to be Jewish in prison must first get a Bris and contractually agree to keep Shabbos and not eat all fast days. The prison can get a Rabbi ruling on this and thus make it constitutionally conformed to refuse kosher meals to prisoners refusing to so contract.
We’ve said it here before: We should not have the government deciding who is a Jew or what is or is not correct Jewish practice.
Yes, what JackC said.
Question is basically which Hashgacha will be accepted by the general population of prison inmates. Not all hashgachas are accepted. For instance, most of the very religious Moslems that I have met rely on the Star K hashgacha, though I am told that certain of the ultra religious Imams have publicly stated that they don’t use it and do not reccomend it. In Gitimo I am told its not accepted and not brought in.
They can feed everybody Vegan meals.
The reason that many non-Jewish prisoners request Kosher food is because they know that it comes sealed and cannot be tampered with. They are afraid that a kitchen worker (another inmate or a staff member who is “out to get him”) may try to poison them or add some harmful object to the “open” food which is prepared in the on-site kitchen. Since the prisoner him/herself breaks the seal on the kosher meal, he knows that it is safe to eat.
Is it possible that a jew can do tshuva? Kiruv is not about where the person is but where he can go. Non kosher food does spiritual harm to the soul. If they can get kosher food maybe it will bring them to tshuva shleima.