Miami, FL – The federal government is suing Florida’s Department of Corrections for not offering kosher meals to prison inmates.
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In its lawsuit filed in Miami federal court, federal officials say that by refusing to offer kosher meals, the state “forces hundreds of its prisoners to violate their core religious beliefs on a daily basis.”
The Justice Department says Florida is violating a federal law protecting prisoners’ ability to worship. A message left Thursday morning for the state corrections spokeswoman was not immediately returned.
Florida stopped offering kosher meals to eligible prisoners statewide in 2007. Since 2010, only about a dozen prisoners in a pilot program at a South Florida are offered kosher meals. The lawsuit says 250 prisoners a day received kosher meals under the previous program.
Florida has roughly 100,000 inmates.
This is a load of ******** because those who are in prison don’t give much credence to their core religious beliefs. An observant Jew should live a life of deeds that will NEVER end one in prison. Call it dietary restrictions, but I don’t buy the “frum” card and “religious descrimjnation
Sorry, but because a person is in prison, he does not being a HUMAN Being. He still should say please and thank you, wash, dress, eat, follow rules. Same for Judaism. Sure the person may be in prison but we do not know the crime. No the less if he did a terrrible deed does not mean that he should not be able to perform any mitzvah. For CHUNA, if you eat kosher as a Jew should, then this should be important. There is an English expression; “Do not throw the baby out with the bath water”. Just because a Jew is in Prison, he still is a Jew. Same thing in a Jewish court or land. On another note, maybe the person is in prison for not paying parking tickets or caught with marijuana or similar “crime”. Maybe he was drunk on Purim and walking home and thus intoxicated in a public place. The judge could have given him prison time. Doe this mean he stops being a JEW. I think that you should rethink you comments.
Chaim Toronto
You didn’t understand my point. They are calling the issue “one of their core religious beliefs.” I wasn’t saying that the food shouldn’t be available. I am saying that if a person ends up in prison for a long time, they have acted in a manner that goes against “core religious beliefs” (I am not talking about “jail” for “minor misdemeanors.”) Where was the “core religious belief” of “CHILLUL HASHEM” or going against the LAW OF THE LAND?
Argue for whatever food you want, but don’t start bringing out the “Core religious beliefs” argument. Where were the core religious beliefs that should have prevented you from doing what got you to prison in the first place? It is hypocritical to talk about core religious beliefs when one violates them to the point of ending up in prison.