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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1979)
Spilyay Tymoo September 7,1979 Page 13 Question of prisoners’ religious rights still an Issue This news-feature was researched and written by David Stotter, summer student-intern from George Washington University’s National Law Center Pioneer Quaker William Penn believed prison to be a sanctuary where man could cogitate about his salvation, become reacquainted with God, and do penance. But is an inmate entitled to cogitate over a special Kosher menu? Can he become reacquainted with God while high on peyote? Can an American Indian prisoner build his own “sweatlodge” to do penance? Two hundred years after Penn, the nation’s courts and prison experts are joining in an escalating debate over whether incarcerated men and women should be allowed to observe the most basic tenets—and some provocative new ones— of their religious faith. Because of discrimination complaints lodged by Muslims. Jews, American Indians and others, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has, for the first time in its 21 -year history, put a national focus on the matter. As a cautious first step, the Federal fact-finding body convened a consultation of national experts in Washington D.C. this spring. avoiding administrative inconvenience and expense. Larry Taylor, warden at the Federal Correctional Institu tion. in Lompoc, California, told the commissioners that in a facility where 4,800 meals a day are served to prisoners, “special dietary arrangements present difficult administra tive, budgetary and time problems.” But recent court decisions have required prison officials to accommodate the dietary needs of Black Muslims and Orthodox Jews whose religion forbids them to eat pork. Marc Stem, an attorney who has successfully represented prisoners seeking special diets, said inmates sometimes resent it when other prisoners get “favored” treatment. A prisoner can “get stabbed in the back over a kosher TV dinner,” he said. Warden Taylor also commented, “Whatever we do for one religious group, we must be willing to do for all religious groups.” Other prison officials complained that they’re now receiving some spurious dietary requests. Alvin Bronstein, Director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, found a “subtler, yet more pervasive problem than the free exercise clause:” the First Amendment prohibition forbidding the government While examining the impact from granting preferential and implications of religious treatment to a religion. discrimination nationally, the Bronstein cited the practice conferees also debated the of recording attendance at issue; to what degree is the free- religious functions on an exercise-of-religion clause of inmate’s prison record. “What the First Amendment troubles me,” he said, “is if subordinate to the interests of these notations are in the files, maintaining prison security, it is highly conceivable that enforcing inmate discipline and parole decisions may be made based upon a prisoner’s nonattendance at religious activities." “It is equally unfair not to note an inmate’s religious activities for parole purposes,” Clair Cripe. General Counsel for the Bureau of Prisons, said since this provides “the complete picture of what an inmate is doing.” - Another official added that such records are necessary to calculate prison budgets. When Indian inmates of the Native American Church wanted a sweatlodge at Lompoc. Warden Taylor’s immediate reaction was “No. because we didn't know anything about sweatlodges.” A sweatlodge is a small wooden hut covered with blankets or a tarp which provides an effect similar to a sauna. Virtually all tribes in this country use it as part of a purification ceremony. Faced with a court suit. Taylor’s staff did some research and relented to the inmates' demands. “We had to be concerned about what kind of precedent we set.” said Taylor. “We don’t build synagogues for Jews or mosques for the Muslims in our population.” The Native American Church believes peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus plant, is both a sacramental object, similar to the bread and wine in certain Christian churches, and is in itself an object of worship much like the Holy Ghost. It’s not permitted in prison, but Walter Echo-Hawk, staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, said Native American Church members are discriminated against because they are prohibited from using peyote while on parole, even though Federal law permits its use for bona fide religious purposes outside of prison. William Collins, an American Correctional Association official, said it is not always easy to define what is a legitimate religion. He cited the Church of the New Song (CONS), an inmate-created religion which one court characterized as a “non structured. free-form, do-as- you-please philosophy, the sole purpose of which is to cause disruption of established prison discipline for the sake of disruption.” When correctional officials attempted to suppress the incipient church, its founder, federal prisoner Harry Theriault, brought a free exercise suit against the Atlanta. Georgia penitentiary. A District Court held that until CONS demonstrated other wise. the movement was to be considered a bona fide religion. Shortly after this victory, a sect within the Church nearly provided such a demonstration by making a formal request to the Federal Bureau of Prisons for 700 porterhouse steaks and 98 bottles of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry to celebrate the sect's rituals. While Theriault immediately proclaimed the request “unsanctioned.” officials in other prisons have forced many CONS chapters to go to court to prove their sincerity; so far. the courts have reached contradictory decisions. Litigation frequently occurs when prison regulations governing personal appearance conflict with the tenets of an inmate’s religion. Some religions require adherents to Makah Tribe rescues snagged gray whale The Makah Tribe, traditio nally’ whale fishermen, were whale saviors recently, when tribal fisheries representitives tackled the risky business of rescuing a whale that became accidentally tangled in a tribal fisherman’s gill net. Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission coordinator for the Makah Treaty Area Geoffrey Hottowe, Makah Fisheries Administrator Al Hartt, and biologist Steve Joner were quick to arrive on the scene at Second Beach on the Makah Reservation, after receiving word that a 40-foot gray whale was entangled in a marine set net there. With help from the U.S. Coast Guard vessel Zodiac, piloted by Stan Ericksen, the whale was examined and some initial RESCUE— After a 40-foot gray whale became entangled in a Makah fisherman’s gillnet, it was towed to deeper water and, in a two-hour process, was cut free of the net. The whale, apparently unharmed, swam away after the ordeal Those involved in the rescue also faced great personal risk. Photo courtesy .N4W. Indian Fisheries Commission attempts were made—without success—to removed the net and free the whale. A telephone conference with a Seattle Veterinarian, Dr. Thomas A. Gornal, a whale specialist, enabled those on the scene to determine that the whale was healthy and should be set free. The Zodiac and a tribal boat, the Makah III, towed the whale into deeper water, where the creature and net would be more maneuver able.. There, in a process that took nearly two hours, Hottowe and Joner cut the net free from the whale’s midsection, head and tail. Toward the end of the operation, the whale broke free and swam off northward. Gray whales are among the marine mammals protected by federal law. Commission Chariman Dale Johnson, also Chariman of the Makah Tribe, said he applauded the actions of the Tribe’s fisheries staff in freeing the whale, at great personal risk; and he particularly cited the sacrifice of Ben Martinez, the Makah fishermen whose net was destroyed in order to save the whale. (Reprinted from Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission NEWS) wear long hair and beards, requirements that prison officials said hinder prisoner identification while also providing inmates a way to conceal weapons and contraband. Conferees also discussed the difficulty of scheduling prayer hours so that they do not interfere with prison routine. Warden Taylor told of a Lompoc inmate who believed in chanting at sunrise. Disturbed by the noise, a fellow inmate assaulted the chanter. The multitude of unresolved issues which were raised prompted the Correctional Association's Colins to comment that judicial clarification is needed. “What is the test? The courts have yet to clearly decide what scale is to be used in balancing the religious demands of an inmate and the demands of a correctional institution.” William Penn, where are you now that we need you? Note: About the Commission: The Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding agency concerned with discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, handicap, or national origin. Members of the Commission are Chairman Arthur S. Flemming; Vice Chairman Stephen Horn, president of California State University, Long Beach; Frankie M. Freeman, an attorney specializing in estate and corporation law, St. Louis; Manuel Ruiz, Jr., an attorney specializing in international law, Los Angeles; and Murray Saltzman, Rabbi, Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, Baltimore. Louis Nunez is staff director. Old slaughter ordinance to be examined There will be a meeting at the Agency Longhouse September 17, 1979. to revise Tribal Ordinance 16. The ordinance is over 30 years old and deals with the rules and regulations regarding the slaughter of livestock on the reservation. Supper will be served beginning at 5:30, and the meeting will follow. All livestock owners are especially invited to attend the meeting.
