NEW YORK — Inmates at the federal prison camp in Otisville, N.Y., were stunned by what they saw at the chapel library on Memorial Day — hundreds of books had disappeared from the shelves.
The removal of the books is occurring nationwide, part of a long-delayed, post-Sept. 11 federal directive intended to prevent radical religious texts, specifically Islamic ones, from falling into the hands of violent inmates.
Three inmates at Otisville filed a lawsuit over the policy, saying their constitutional rights were violated. They say all religions were affected.
"The set of books that have been taken out have been ones that we used to minister to new converts when they come in here," inmate John Okon, speaking on behalf of the prison's Christian population, told a judge last week.
Okon said it was unfortunate because "I have really seen religion turn around the life of some of these men, especially in the Christian community."
The government maintained that the new rules don't entirely clear the shelves of prison chapel libraries.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Feldman told U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain that prison libraries limited the number of books for each religion to between 100 and 150 under the new rules. He said officials would expand the number after choosing a new list of permitted books.
Feldman said the removal order stemmed from an April 2004 Department of Justice review of the way prisons choose Muslim religious services providers. It is not exactly clear why it took so long for the order to be put into effect, but prison officials said they needed time to examine a long list of books.
Feldman said the study was made out of a concern that prisons "had been radicalized by inmates who were practicing or espousing various extreme forms of religion, specifically Islam, which exposed security risks to the prisons and beyond the prisons to the public at large."
Feldman said the review by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons concluded that prison chapel libraries were not adequately supervised.
"The presence of extremist chaplains, contractors or volunteers in the BOP's correctional facilities can pose a threat to institutional security and could implicate national security," the bureau's report said.
The review suggested audio and video monitoring of worship areas and screening of religious service providers. It also recommended that prisons reduce inmate-led religious services and consider constant staff monitoring of inmate-led services.
Once you land in jail is it safe to assume you've given up all your rights? Well, maybe not. Inmates are still entitled to basic human rights, such as the right to choose their religion.
On a fundamental level this looks to me--a legal layman--like it's a violation of the separation of church and state, which is something that I feel strongly about as a Catholic. Church/state separation protects our right to choose and practice our religion. It's what has made religion strong in the US.
Furthermore, it bothers me more than a little to see Islam in particular being targeted. If we allow Islam to be regulated, then which religion is next?
"limited the number of books for each religion to between 100 and 150"
For each religion (I don't even have that many on Catholicism), and the article verifies not all Muslim books are gone, tho' it doesn't verify whether all Jewish books are gone (and one would have to wonder with Moshe why Rabbi Kushner's book was pulled!), and it doesn't mention Catholic ones...those are among the most radical of all.
However, I agree with you. It may be that we need another amendment. We won't get one until Mr. Patriot Act stops naming everything but his own shadow a player in the evil deck of cards, but reading is something Soviet Russia regulated. Have we forgotten?
Posted by: Gypsy | June 12, 2007 at 10:12 AM