Idaho Prison Class Action Challenges Lack of Kosher Meals for Jewish Inmates

Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of four prisoners who allege the Idaho prison system violates the rights of Jewish prisoners by failing to offer kosher meals.

“The plaintiffs are Jewish prisoners who have been forced by hunger to defile themselves every day, for years,” the kosher prison meals class action lawsuit says. “They have pleaded repeatedly for meals that comply with the dietary laws of their religion.”

Their efforts thus far have been unsuccessful, according to the Idaho prison class action lawsuit. During Passover, two plaintiffs ate only matzo and fruit because they were not provided kosher meals.

The ACLU of Idaho filed the class action lawsuit against the Idaho Department of Correction (IDOC) and other agents, arguing that the prisons’ refusal to provide kosher diets for Jewish prisoners violates state and federal law, as well as the 1st and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

“IDOC’s dietary policy is an outlier among American correctional institutions,” the Idaho prison class action lawsuit alleges. “Kosher food is readily available in the United States, including for prison food service.”

The ACLU class action lawsuit points to studies showing that prisoners who participate more frequently in religious activities break prison rules less often and are less likely to engage in conflict with other prisoners.

“Most states, as well as the Federal Bureau of Prisons, already offer fully kosher meals in all of their prisons,” the ACLU lawsuit continues. “Yet in response to the plaintiffs’ grievances, IDOC instead chose to invest in a new ‘Common Fare’ diet that it knew was not kosher.”

According to the kosher prison meals class action lawsuit, IDOC offers a mainline menu and several types of dietary menus that are available to all prisoners, including a diet with reduced calories, fat, sodium and sugar; a non-pork diet that provides alternatives for food items on the mainline menu that contain pork; a vegan diet; a lacto-ovo diet has no meat but includes dairy and eggs; and the Common Fare diet that has vegan food items plus eggs and/or dairy and/or kosher meats.

Even though the Common Fare diet includes kosher meats and calls for the separation of dairy from meat and the separation of common fare foods from non-common fare foods, these meals are not kosher, and the Common Fare diet was not designed to be kosher, the ACLU argues.

IDOC also prepares special meals for prisoners who have medically necessary dietary needs that are not met by any of the other available diet options, according to the ACLU class action lawsuit. However, the IDOC does not provide a kosher diet for Jewish prisoners even after they have asked for kosher meals.

The proposed Class includes all current and future Jewish prisoners confined in Idaho Department of Correction facilities who seek to maintain a kosher diet.

The plaintiffs are represented by Richard Eppink of American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho Foundation and Craig Durham of Ferguson Durham PLLC.

The Idaho Prison Kosher Diet Class Action Lawsuit is Bill Bartlett, et al. v. Henry Atencio, et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-00191-CWD, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho.