The fighter-jet-demolishing Irish-Australian anarchist behemoth in the center of this picture told me that he got mollycoddled while in prison because he told the prison staff that he had taken the Nazarite Oath (the oath that Sampson took, consecrating himself to Jehovah, agreeing never to cut his hair) and insisted the oath required him to receive various special privileges.

I'm agnostic about how accommodating prisons should be for stuff like this. Regardless, someone will abuse it. On the other hand, keeping Fancy Joe out of your special places should be an inalienable human right. So wardens, spend your money on more guards before you spend it on more shochets.

Yeah, I have to agree. Lipstadt is doing good work in the world, making personal sacrifices, and promoting a Jewish agenda, but so are a lot of people. A radical is something else again.

Hey "Jewcy", figure it out: this is a Christian country, with a strong and growing anti-semitic tilt. What few bits of rights we have are eroding and will be eroded more.

You're sitting there worried about an inmate who wants to keep kosher? Are there no other Earth-shaking events you could consider? Keep your eyes on the prize, chaver. This guy wants to move himself toward some more spirituality and, of course, you object. Why is it that you object? You've moved to reductio ad absurdum as your central argument. Why if people want safer elevators, they just might someday want safer parachutes. So let's fuck'em now and make our elevators as unsafe as possible just to prevent that obviously inevitable eventuality. Suppose, just for argument's sake, the Muslims in prison want halal food? Guess what, they already get it in many prisons. Suppose the Christian prisoners want to have church services? Terrible problem? No, they already get it in most prisons. What's your beef? (sorry, kosher beef)?

I just think you're another Jew who doesn't want to make trouble. Let's propitiate the majority. Give in, forget kashruth. Fuck the fuckin' murderer. (By the way, are you 100% sure he's a guilty murderer? Have there never been cases where after 25 years they find proof they guy is innocent) and is there never any redemption, forgiveness, new growth in a person? Can no one ever reform? You know, you're right. The fuck with prisons, instead, let's take the bastards out, right after conviction, and cut their throats right in front of the courthouse. (Use a good shoket) and save all of us a ton of dough. Who needs that goddamn compassion anyway.

Hey man, focus on the real problems and stop apologizing to the Man.

see this site
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Benning_Ralph.html

you'll see that Ralph was a molested child and then recapitulated his molestation and killed an 8 year old boy on the exact site where he was hurt. He received little or no help or counseling. (Not to excuse him, but to explain his actions.)

So, spending the rest of his life in prison seems to be a good punishment. Now he begins to seek a higher meaning, a return to the Judaism that the Christian home (that abused him) denied him, and you're upset.

Doesn't make sense, Laurel.

All feasible requests should be accomodated, unless the religious requirement in question would violate the safety or rights of other inmates.  To take an obvous example, a Sikh prisoner shouldn't be allowed to carry a kirpan (ritual dagger).  But apart from such extreme circumstances, go for it.  Although it's true that some inmates "get religion" for opportunistic reasons, such as evading the death penalty where practiced, for many others religious practice can be a positive, rehabilitative force in their lives and possibly reduce the likelihood of recidivism.

And Joey is correct about Fancy Joe.  Although in popular culture we like to joke about anal rape in prisons, the fact is that, apart from the physical injuries and emotional trauma, many inmates contract HIV as a result of being raped.  And as I'd imagine it's unlikely that most correction facilities pay for retroviral therapy, such prisoners end up developing AIDS and thus receiving an "extralegal" death sentence.  Whatever one thinks of capital punishment, prisoners surely have no right to administer it to each other.

Wow, okay...

Some of you make excellent points.  Some of you don't seem to have read what I've
written.

I'm not saying he SHOULDN'T get a kosher meal. I'm simply pointing out some thoughts
I had when I noted my own gut reaction to this story.  And it doesn't seem like some
people are actually responding to the questions I've asked so much as they are
arguing with an emotional/quick response I've voiced.  

I'm NOT upset that he's seeking meaning.  I'm just not sure how far it's our job to
accomodate him.

Michael, thank you!  This is a really useful comment.  But how do we create that
line. exactly?  For instance... my understanding from Benning's lawyer was that at
the root of the yarmulke arguement was that headgear can be a place prisoners hide
things.  So like, if they don't let a man have a turban, how can they allow the
yarmulke?  That wouldn't seem, on the surface, to violate safety to me, but it gets
tricky.  Hence my initial question... isn't it better, in some ways, to discriminate
equally.  Once we allow that faith is a right, how can we judge the ratio of danger:
usefullness, or cost:importance.  Just a thought.

And yes, I'm sorry to have made light of assraping.  Of course that's true. Won't
happen again.

And to anon... I'm many things, but I'm NOT someone who "doesn't like to make trouble".