Concord, NH – A federal judge has ruled that inmates have no First Amendment rights to grow a beard, rejecting the claim of an orthodox Jew who claimed prison policy banning facial hair longer than a quarter-inch violated his constitutional rights.
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U.S. District Court Chief Judge Steven McAuliffe ruled against Albert Kuperman, saying prison officials’ concerns about hygiene and security trump inmates’ free expression and religious rights.
McAuliffe acknowledged that Kuperman’s religion “requires men to refrain from trimming their beards.” But, he ruled, prison officials have valid reasons for requiring that beards be kept to a maximum length of a quarter-inch.
“That length allows correctional officers to identify inmates easily, prevents inmates from hiding contraband and weapons in beards and minimizes the risk that an escaped inmate could quickly change his appearance after an escape,” McAuliffe wrote in his Aug. 27 ruling.
“A grooming policy that allowed full beards, on the other hand, would strain prison resources and/or relations between inmates and staff by requiring the issuance of multiple identification cards and by requiring more frequent inmate searches,” the judge said.
Kuperman also argued the prison policy violated his equal protection rights because inmates in high-security housing often have beards exceeding the quarter-inch length. The court dismissed this claim, noting that the high-security inmates are not allowed to have razors and are shaved by prison barbers every week or two, as prison resources permit.
Kuperman, 25, lost a court challenge last year over kosher diets. He claimed his constitutional rights were violated when he was removed from a kosher diet plan after twice being caught eating non-kosher foods. Corrections spokesman Jeff Lyons said prison policy has since been changed to permit an inmate three lapses before being threatened with removal from diets related to religion.
Kuperman is serving 3½ to 7 years behind bars for sexually molesting a minor in 2002. He is eligible for parole in January.
It is not trimming the beard but shaving. I guess he will have to keep it trimmed. More importantly, is he receving psychiatric help for his illness?
He’s in prison for sexually molesting a minor and he’s worried about the length of his beard?? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Judge McAuliffe was appointed to the court by President George H. W. Bush in 1992. He was married to Christa McAuliffe who died in the Challenger space shuttle.
people like this make me sick,they so worried about minor things like this but its ok 2 molest a child,let him rot,and yes i know all the concerned jews on this site will start bashing me about wheres my jewish heart,well guess what,4 people like this i dont have 1!!!!!!!
Let this child abuser rot in prison with or without a beard…….
once you are sent to prison for committing a crime, please do me a favor and stop playing the religion game, because if you really cared and observed you would not be there in the first place
To # 2 and #4 …Molesting a child is a crime and thats why he is in jail serving his sentence but taking away someones religious rights is wrong….No one is assured with the american justice system if he wont be in prison one day so lets not be so fast to condem another jew who is suffering already for his bad history….Yom kipper is around the corner and i am sure you dont want to be judged by hashem the american justice way…
He’s such a big ende tzaddik
Anyone within the orthodox community who goes to jail for something that is inherently wrong (e.g. sexual molestation, theft, murder etc) should not keep kosher or shabbos and should not allow themselves to be identified as a Jew at all in order to avoid the immense chillul hashem of frum people going to prison, which is an epidemic on so large a scale that there are over 3 times the amount of frum Jews in US prisons than non frum Jews, adjusted for population!
Sexual molestation of minors is not an accepted mental disorder or disease by DSM of the APA. We punish these people for their free will to commit crimes against children. The judge has applied stare decisis and was right to do so. Prisoners demand way too many constitutional “rights.” Prison is not paradise and the law punishes you by stripping you of rights when you chose to commit crimes. 3 years in a clean American prison is a joke. Send them to a Mexican or Russian prison.
What a nutcase, he was caught eating non kosher food he molested a child but he needs Kosher, he is nebach sick and needs help. get him a doctor not a lawyer.
Soon you will say that if a person steeled money then he doesn’t deserves a beard?
Regardless of what this person did to go to jail. this should concern every Orthodox Jew. Rightly or wrongly convicted, you have now lost your right to grow your beard and observe Torah completely. If you are wrongly convicted, you will have to shave. This does not appeal to me and I hope that it is overturned. Kosher meals are a big deal too. So are the ability to have tzitzis, a kippah and sometimes Tefillin if you are a low level offender. Be forewarned. This is a right that is being denied.
“there are over 3 times the amount of frum Jews in US prisons than non frum Jews, adjusted for population!”
Source, HaNavon?
Oh, there isn’t any? Nevermind, then.
He’s 25 now, he molested a kid in ’02, 8 years ago, when he was 17. Am I reading properly?
Next, have we all forgotten that every Yid has the ability to do Teshuva? It’s been a while since 02, maybe, just maybe, he did Teshuva. And even if not (as apparently evident from his Taavos for Treif), do we refrain him from doing ALL Mitzvahs now?
Are we setting a precedent that anyone who ignores any one Mitzvah, forfeits his rights to do any other ones?! A little dangerous, I think.
I’m not saying sins should go unpunished, I’m just saying that we have to use mind AND heart when sentencing.
#16 – His sentence for raping two little children is absolutely in line with what anyone else would get. Why should it matter that he’s a Jew? The Law is the same for all. Would you rather see people get lighter sentences because they’re Christians and heavier ones because they’re Jews? That’s the flip side.
Poster # 17 (AIO); You’re missing the point. The litigation (and loss of argument) by this (disgusting) inmate did not go on SPECIFIC religious grounds. (i.e.; I’m Jewish, therefore I have more rights than a non-Jew.) Rather, it was about Religious rights, which are Constitutional rights. But his personal disgusting and sick behavior, that brought him to prison in the first place, and his being caught eating non-kosher food, on Two separate occasions, demonstrate that his religious observance is only for self-serving reasons or a whim.
this abberation is rampant among us.the rabbis are afraid to deal with this head on.any positive move to correct this will bring a blessing.is this situation called being a light to the nations?
In most cases involving the incarcerated the rule is:” A Prisoner does not shed . . . basic First Amendment rights at the prison gate.” Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396, 422, 40 L. Ed. 2d 224, 94 S. Ct. 1800 (1974) (Marshall, J., concurring). Particularly in light of the fact that beards are not necessarily a contradiction to security concerns, see Burgin v. Henderson, 536 F.2d 501 (2d Cir. 1976); Sostre v. Preiser, 519 F.2d 763, 764 [**21] (2d Cir. 1975); Moskowitz v. Wilkinson, 432 F. Supp. 947 (D. Conn. 1977); Monroe v. Bombard, 422 F. Supp. 211 (S.D.N.Y. 1976).
The three elements most necessary to prevail in such action are: 1) prisoner must demonstrate that his beliefs are sincerely held and “are, in his own scheme of things, religious.” United States v. Seeger, 380 U.S. 163, 185, 13 L. Ed. 2d 733, 85 S. Ct. 850 (1965); see also Furqan v. Georgia State Board of Offender Rehabilitation, 554 F. Supp. 873, 876 (N.D. Ga. 1982). In evaluating the religious nature of such belief, this court must not employ an objective, content-based approach to defining religious belief but rather must examine the plaintiff’s “inward attitudes towards a particular belief system.” Patrick v. LeFevre, 745 F.2d 153, 157 (2d Cir. 1984).
2) That the belief is an actual tenet of faith albeit not necessarily held my the majority of adherents to such religion.
3)and that such excercise of 1st Amendment rights is not at odds with the security or penological goals of the Prison. see above. The second circuit set the standard as “…even if the institutional purpose [in prohibiting beards] is legitimate and substantial, ‘that purpose cannot be pursued by means that broadly stifle fundamental personal liberties when the end can be more narrowly achieved.’ Shelton v. Tucker [**22] , [364 U.S. 479, 488, 5 L. Ed. 2d 231, 81 S. Ct. 247 (1960)], Procunier v. Martinez, [416 U.S. 396, 413, 94 S. Ct. 1800, 40 L. Ed. 2d 224 (1974)].”
Most responses here are different from those in a similar case of a different convicted sexual molester of a minor, i.e. BL. In that case the majority were screaming for the right to get only super glatt kosher squared meals. Now, why is that?
He is full of it. Just wants to complain and cause trouble. Watch , another lawsuit soon that the room is too hot or too cold or he has no privacy going to the bathroom. This is not a religious issue at all. He is the wrong case to bring to argue for beards as he is hiding behind the religion just to cause trouble. Lapses in Kashrut becuase hes not really kosher. As soon as hes out of jail its back to MacDonalds. Feh on him and the disgrace he brings to being Jewish.
#19 – I agree with your general point about religious liberties. I am taking issue with poster #16 who believes the prisoner should get special consideration in punishment and sentencing because he is Jewish.
No 11 well said and the DSM certainly is guidline for mental disorder. The judge has applied stare decisis as you said and issued a decision. In concentration camp I had no brera but in the U.S. obeying the laws will avoid piryonuis