The Associated Press via Brattleboro Reformer
BURLINGTON, Vt. — A group of Muslim prison inmates say they have had to push prison staff to make accommodations for their religion even though Vermont Department of Corrections policy calls for meeting the special religious needs of inmates.
Inmate Gregory Sierras said he had to push staff at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport to hold Friday prayer services and allow Muslim inmates to receive pre-dawn and after-dusk meals during Ramadan.
“They have this backwards idea of what Islam is,” said Sierras, who has since been transferred to the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans. “We’re not allowed to make our prayers together, we’re not allowed to congregate.”
Dominic Damato, corrections facilities operations manager, said the department made efforts to accommodate the inmates and it was never enough. “People’s individual understandings of what (they feel) they’re entitled to versus what they are entitled to sometimes vary,” he said.
He said prison rules require that an outside volunteer oversee religious services within the facilities and Muslim volunteers weren’t available in Newport, said Damato.
As long ago as 1994, Muslim inmates at the St. Albans prison complained they had to fight for their right to practice their religion. Prison officials said the issue represented growing pains in the state’s prison as they accommodated an increasingly diverse population.
In 2007, the state changed its rules to allow inmates to attend any religious service of their choosing and the following year the state paid a $25,000 settlement to a Jewish inmate who accused the prison of denying him kosher food for Passover.
Inmate advocate and attorney Barry Kade said the weekly Muslim prayer services are now taking place regularly, but he found the continued push to ensure religious freedom to be disquieting.
“One would think the training and culture within DOC (the Department of Corrections) would lead to a respect for all religious beliefs,” he said.
Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito said he wants the services to take place.
“I was a little bit surprised when I found out they had stopped again,” Pallito said, referring to the Friday services. “I gave them the order, ‘Just get this done. I don’t want to have this conversation six times.”’
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