WASHINGTON — The D.C. jail is being sued for allegedly infringing upon the rights of their Jewish inmates by failing to provide them with kosher meals as required by their faith.
The ACLU of the District of Columbia filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of Riley Benjamin against three officials of the D.C. Department of Corrections (DOC) for their alleged refusal to provide Benjamin and other Jewish individuals in their custody with kosher meals without external verification of their Jewish faith.
The lawsuit alleges that Christian or Muslim individuals are not required to provide external verification of their faith in order to receive religious accommodations.
“My Jewish faith is one of the few things that has sustained me during this tough time in my life while I’ve been locked up,” said Benjamin. “It’s discriminatory and wrong for Reverend Colbert and Chaplain Allen, who are people of faith themselves, to deny me the opportunity to keep kosher by imposing proof requirements that don’t apply to people of other religions.”
The lawsuit, filed as a class action, primarily seeks a court order to prohibit DOC officials from imposing requirements on Jewish inmates to provide external verification of their religion as a condition for approving their kosher meal requests. It also asks the court to require DOC to supply kosher meals to Jewish individuals who request them based on their desire to maintain kosher dietary practices as a part of the practice of their faith.
The complaint charges that DOC's practice infringes on their religious rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
"The right to practice one’s religion is deeply embedded in our country’s values and laws,” said Laura Follansbee, a legal fellow at the ACLU-D.C. and counsel for Mr. Benjamin. “D.C. Jail officials’ practice of denying kosher meal requests to Jewish people unless they can provide third-party proof of their religion, either through a rabbi or a formal letter of conversion, violates federal law and ignores the deeply personal nature of faith and spirituality."
In addition to asking DOC to drop its external verification requirement, Benjamin's lawsuit seeks compensation for the denial of his kosher meal requests.
Currently, DOC’s external verification practice requires confirmation of a person’s Jewish faith from a synagogue, rabbi, or through a letter of conversion before providing a religious dietary accommodation.
WUSA9 has reached out to the Department of Corrections for comment, but we have not heard back.
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