Texas: Judge rules prisons violating rights of Muslim convicts

Does the Constitution enumerate the right to group prayer with taxpayer-funded prayer leaders? via Federal ruling: Texas prisons violating rights of Muslims – Houston Chronicle. h/t Bare Naked Islam

The Texas prison system is violating the rights of Muslim inmates with rules that make it all but impossible for them to freely practice their religion, a federal judge has ruled.

In the ruling made public Thursday, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, said there are not enough Muslims in Texas, especially in rural areas, to meet the prison system’s criteria for Muslim inmates to hold services and conduct related activities.

By contrast, he said, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice illegally favors Christian inmates because there are ample civilians and chaplains of that faith in the state to conduct services in prisons. “The TDCJ knowingly adopted a policy it knew would impose requirements on Muslim inmates’ religious services that could not be satisfied by volunteers or overcome by Muslim inmates,” Hoyt said.

The ruling is the latest volley in a clash that goes back to a 1969 lawsuit that resulted in the state having to accommodate an array of Muslim religious needs, including serving pork-free meals and permitting inmates to have Islamic literature and memorabilia.

Sharia has been creeping in Texas since 1969 and the litigation jihad continues.

That lawsuit was settled in 1977, but was brought back to life in 2012, when the Texas Attorney General contended that it should be released from the aging settlement, and immediately enacted new regulations regarding how religion is practiced among the approximately 151,000 inmates in the state’s prison system.

Under the new rules regarding the practice of religion, inmates could not meet in groups of four or more without a staff member or civilian supervising them, and could not have more than one hour a week for group religious activities without meeting those same criteria.

Hoyt’s ruling requires the state to return to the 1977 agreement, which allows inmates more than an hour of religious activities and to have services without a prison clergy or civilian religious supervisor present.

Prison officials declined to comment Thursday, but an appeal, which is expected to be filed, would prevent it from having to make any changes, pending a ruling from the higher court.

Ed Mallett, a Houston attorney who represented inmates in the case for decades, said Hoyt’s ruling was a victory for anyone who believes religion helps wrongdoers turn around their lives.

“I have never found anyone who committed a violent crime while he was praying on his knees,” Mallett said. “I have never found anyone to commit a violent crime while sitting to be instructed in the word of our Lord or standing in praise.”

Of the state’s 151,139 inmates, 6,775 expressed a preference for the Muslim religion, according to statistics in the judge’s order. That compares with 88,504 who have expressed a preference for the Protestant faith and 31,432 for the Catholic faith.

The challenge is that in some portions of the state, especially rural areas, there are no known Muslims, let alone one who is willing and able to volunteer to help with services inside the prison system.

Mallett noted that Muslim prisoners need more access to religious leaders and be able to meet in larger groups and more often, in order to practice, strengthen and understand their faith.

There are five imams employed by the Texas prison system’s 111 units.

Let’s keep it real. The majority of these convicts were not Muslims when they committed their initial violent crimes and are Muslims in name only now. For whatever reasons, likely special prison treatment as well as the male-dominant role in sharia societies that permit four wives, marriage to underage girls, wife beating, 72 virgins, and waging jihad – they convert to Islam in prison.

This is a farce.

For those wondering, the judge was appointed by Reagan.

 

13 Responses

  1. Send the Muslim convicts permanently back to Islamic countries where they can serve their sentences with halal food and all the wonderful things that Islamic prisoners are treated to.

  2. Another sic JACK ASS JUDGE! Where in the constitution does it state that PRISONS have to have special prayer priveleges!

  3. If these muzturds were to practice their “religion” freely then there would be beheadings, shootings, mass riots, rapes, beastiality, suicide bombings….you know just normal moturd stuff.

  4. what other belief systems get the same privileges as muzzies??? right, none.

  5. Having worked as a Captain for TDCJ for 7+ years, I can tell you, unequivocably, that offenders become muslim in order to cause the most disruption to the prison as possible. My favorite is watching the Islam worshipping offenders com gt pork ribs at chow…..

    The primary reason for the rule is that unsupervised groups of offenders are trouble in the making – planning sessions for more trouble.

    If you haven’t worked corrections, you have NO BUSINESS issuing any rulings regarding it – or making any comments about it.

  6. They should have obeyed our laws, then they wouldn’t be in our Prison System. I also thought that you lost your Constitutional rights when you were convicted and sentenced to Prison.

  7. JUDGE HOYT SHOULD JOIN HIS MUSLIM BEST FRIENDS IN THE SLAM AND STAY THERE!

  8. Perhaps there should be a concerted effort by the states to operate a prison facility within the Middle East.

  9. Since Islam is not a religion why is Texas calling it a religion and treating Shara Islam as if it is a religion? Problem solved!

  10. […] Texas: Judge rules prisons violating rights of Muslim convicts […]

  11. fo bad pigs

  12. […] is violating Muslim rights by not putting enough of them in prison. At least in rural areas. That prevents them from practicing their […]

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