A Jewish former Vermont prison inmate who said he was denied Kosher-for-Pesach food, a Menorah, and Purim baskets, while incarcerated – has settled a lawsuit against the state Corrections Department for $25,000.
Fifty-three-year-old Gordon Bock of Northfield, who was jailed in St. Albans and Newport in late 2004 and 2005, says he was denied his religious liberty in violation of the First Amendment and Vermont law.
Bock says that a Chabad (Florida)-based group that helps Jewish inmates, was willing to provide food and other religious items to him at no charge.
Robert Hofmann, a Vermont corrections commissioner, told The Associated Press that the department has drafted new rules on religious observances since Bock’s incarceration that have been “well received” by inmates and faith communities.
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6 Responses
Reminds me of the true story about a guy who broke into a house while the owners were on vacation. While he was in the cellar the garage door closed and locked him into the house. When the owners returned home, he sued them for being ‘imprisoned’ in their home WITHOUT food or water for three days, and HE WON!!!
The inmates have their rights, but to sue??? Come on!
Actually, I believe those two cases are not similar at all. In fact, if I were to try and find a case that was NOT like the case of Jewish inmate, I would have chosen the case about the garage and the robber.
When a person is treated unfairly, he needs to defend himself and this often means going to court. This Jewish inmate was robbed of some of his rights and now the Jail was ordered to repay him with money. Certainly the money will not make up for the inmate having to eat Chometz on Pesach or not light Chanukah candles, but still, it gives him some restitution and hopefully teaches the jail not to act this way again.
#1, YOU SEEM TO CONTRADICT YOURSELF IN YOUR STATEMENT. “The inmates have their rights, but to sue??? Come on”. If you agree that they have rights, then if ones rights were violated then he has a perfect right to sue. Just because he is in jail does not forfeit ones rights.
3, Please put your caps down! You hav a ‘right’ to your point but dont shout.
Personally I dont think that PRISON is the place for any Jew. As minor as the crime might be its a terrible Chillul Hashem, and SUEING because they didnt receive their PURIM BASKETS, makes the Chillul H’ much worst..
4, you are poorly informed about the prisons these days, in which the state and your taxes pay for the most rediculous things for inmates like cable tv, libraries, online collage courses, gym equipment, and a whole host of other things that are faaaaaarrrrr more rediculous than a person trying to turn their life around after they have made poor choices. Why don’t you go look up some of the stuff that is actually sponsored in these prisons, and you will learn something. And frankly, yeah, if all inmates chose to do some religious soul searching while in jail we’d all be in a much better position.
shouting scorecard:
Rav Mechel: 8 capitalized words, 0 exclamation marks
nameless: 7 capitalized words, 5 exclamation marks, including one deafening set of 3 in a row.