RLUIPA.org
Jewish prisoner sues Florida Department of Corrections
Alan Cotton, a prisoner at Florida's Everglades Correctional Institution, today filed suit against the state's Department of Corrections, arguing that the department's refusal to provide him with kosher food illegally burdens his religious exercise. The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to order the department to provide him with a "nutritionally sufficient kosher diet," and to issue a declaration that failure to provide kosher food violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 ("RLUIPA"), the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1998, and the U.S. and Florida constitutions.
Cotton was born and raised in the Jewish faith, and is "a sincere adherent of Orthodox Judaism" who "believes he is required to keep a kosher diet" in order to "conform to the divine will of God as expressed in the Torah," according to the complaint.
Although the Florida Department of Corrections officially provides three different meal plans for prisoners (‘regular,' ‘alternate,' and ‘therapeutic'), none qualify as kosher. The Department refuses to provide kosher meals to Jewish prisoners despite a state administrative code provision directing that "inmates who wish to observe religious dietary laws shall be provided a diet sufficient to sustain them in good health without violating those dietary laws." Federal prisons in Florida provide kosher meals to Jewish prisoners, as do Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties.
Cotton first sought kosher meals in an informal grievance on October 20, 2000. It was denied four days later, and Cotton filed a formal grievance the same day. It was also quickly denied, and a subsequent appeal was rejected on December 12, 2000.
The complaint filed today points out that correctional officials "have never identified any compelling government interest for denying [Cotton] kosher meals or explained how the failure to provide kosher meals is the least restrictive means of advancing any such compelling government interest."
Alan Cotton is represented by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and by Miami attorneys Elliott Scherker and Susana Betancourt, of the Miami law firm Greenberg Traurig. Although The Becket Fund has filed amicus briefs in other prisoner cases brought under RLUIPA, this is the first case in which it represents a client seeking redress under the law. The Becket Fund represents many clients from a wide variety of faith traditions who have brought suit under the religious land use portion of the law. The text of the lawsuit filed today, and much other information, can be found at www.becketfund.org and www.rluipa.com .