(RNS) — For Muslims, the monthlong fast of Ramadan is an occasion to deepen one’s knowledge of Islam and congregate with loved ones to break fast at sunset. But for Muslims who are incarcerated, it can be a month of frustration as prison schedules aren’t set with Ramadan’s daily rhythms in mind.
Prisoners who observe Ramadan, who don’t take any food or water between sunrise and sundown, are often forced to break their fasts when eating is not officially permitted, or are not allowed to congregate for Eid al-Fitr, the celebration marking the end of the holy time. Instead of growing spiritually, many prisoners spend the month engaged in tedious legal battles to ensure their religious rights are respected.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group, sees a spike in the number of complaints filed by inmates. Most of these cases arise because of lesser consideration given to non-Christian inmates, out of ignorance and sometimes bigotry, said Corey Saylor, a research and advocacy director with CAIR.
“Some of these cases just straight up have to do with anti-Muslim biases, and some of those cases simply have to do with not understanding the faith,” said Saylor, though he noted it’s difficult to assess what share of these cases are the result of a deliberate desire to restrict prisoners’ ability to practice their faith.
In Virginia, some inmates have been denied the right to fast unless they declared their intention to do so four months in advance, including one inmate who had converted a month before Ramadan and was “being put in a position of either starving himself or not adhering to his sincerely held religious beliefs because of this just weird rule,” said Saylor.
Muslims make up as little as 1% of the U.S. population but 9% of inmates, with the federal government alone incarcerating some 11,000 Muslims. Despite the growing number of Muslims behind bars, American prisons lack a sufficient number of competent chaplains to serve the population and advocate for their rights.
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CAIR produces a guide to Islamic religious practices and shares it each year with prison administrators as Ramadan approaches, reminding them of their obligations toward religious prisoners, said Saylor. The 16-page document provides information on Muslim daily prayers, the need for prayer rugs, Islamic garments and other topics.
Muhammad Amin Anderson. (Video screen grab via CBS)
There is also help in navigating Ramadan for prisoners themselves. The nonprofit Tayba Foundation offers religious teachings, reinsertion programs and assistance to inmates and their families in all 50 states, serving more than 1,000 facilities.
Muhammad Amin Anderson, an instructor with Tayba, joined the organization last summer after serving a 33-year sentence in a Pennsylvania federal prison. Having converted to Islam in prison at 22, he studied Islam through Tayba’s teaching materials. Anderson also trains non-Muslim chaplains on Islamic practices and helps inmates prepare their applications for parole.
Many complaints related to religious accommodations would be avoided, Anderson said, if more Muslim chaplains were present in prisons, where prisoners are often left to fend for themselves and their requests hesitantly answered by the correctional staff.
“If you put more Muslim chaplains in the system, it makes it a lot easier to put the responsibility of preparing for Ramadan, answering any questions that need to be answered by staff, to a member of the staff department in the chaplaincy, rather than having to go to a person who’s incarcerated, who they have a lot of doubt about,” he said.
In rural areas, the need for Muslim chaplains is even more important, as the correctional staff is less likely to be religiously diverse, he said.
FILE – In this June 1, 2018, file photo, media tour a housing unit in the west section of the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix in Collegeville, Pa. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma, File)
A 2021 report from the U.S. Department of Justice on the lack of Muslim chaplains within the Bureau of Prisons concluded that “the BOP has not taken adequate steps to address its long-standing chaplaincy staffing issues, including issues arising from the increasing religious diversity within the inmate population.”
The report indicated that Protestant Christian chaplains were overrepresented in the BOP, with 84% of all chaplains being Protestant Christians as of March 2020, while serving only 34% of inmates claiming a faith preference.
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Salahuddin Muhammad, vice-president of the corrections department for the Association of Muslim Chaplains, said potential candidates shy away from joining the chaplaincy because of notions that serving imprisoned people is unsafe.
Muhammad, primarily works at FCI Butner, a federal correctional complex in North Carolina where he mediates between the prison staff and inmates. During Ramadan he often has to remind staffers of their obligations about inmates’ religious rights, while negotiating matters such as whether inmates with medical conditions can fast despite the facility’s medication schedule interfering with fasting hours.
“In Islam, we have concessions, if you have an illness, you don’t have to fast. So I talk to them about that, that’s probably the biggest thing during the month of Ramadan,” he said.
Alexandra Morgan-Kurtz. (Courtesy photo)
Large prisons tend to impose stricter rules on fasting, which particularly affects those with medically limited diets. Alexandra Morgan-Kurtz, deputy director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, which defends inmates’ civil rights, recently represented a Pennsylvania detainee who was put in solitary for keeping oranges in his cell to break his fast.
“People who are receiving any kind of medical diet have to choose between getting their medical diet versus participating in the special Ramadan meals, which is pretty ridiculous,” they said.
In 2022 Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections, where 1 in 5 inmates are Muslim, revised a longstanding policy regarding the organization of religious feasts, removing the option to purchase food that wasn’t usually included in the prison mainline menu. For Muslim inmates, it meant they would no longer be able to buy halal meats for Eid al-Fitr meals, one of the rare times of the year inmates would have access to halal meat, they said.
Recently, Morgan-Kurtz, representing Craig Williams, a detainee of the Albion prison, in Erie County, argued the policy violated Williams’ religious rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). A recent settlement required that the DOC draft a new policy that would reverse the change and apply to all religious groups eligible for meals for religious holidays at all prisons
The DOC had already moved away from the policy before the ruling, said the Rev. Ulrich Klemm, the head of the DOC’s religious services, in an email statement shared with Religion News Service, and the change will come into effect on March 12 in all the state’s prisons, accommodating faith groups that qualify with up to two religious meals per year, wrote Klemm.
The meals will include a DOC-provided meal chosen by faith groups from the regular menu, and up to three items purchased from food establishments approved by the department.
“The DOC strives to meet inmate religious needs within the confines of an institutional setting,” Klemm wrote.
But Morgan-Kurtz claimed the policy change was typical of a prison authority that had simply not considered the importance of food in religious practices. The DOC, they said, mostly believes “faith should be about what you think and what you pray, not about food.”
