A federal judge on Thursday granted a restraining order prohibiting prison guards in Alaska from giving Muslim inmates pork for their only meal during Ramadan.
Anchorage Correctional Complex had been allowing Muslim inmates to “starve,” as consuming pork is forbidden in Islam, said the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which filed a lawsuit against the prison on Tuesday. According to the lawsuit, the meals were also below caloric and nutritional standards, resulting in a violation of the constitution’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment.”
CAIR has requested a “balanced nutritional diet” for the inmates, as well as policy changes and punitive damages for those affected.
The lawsuit describes a particularly disturbing incident in which a correctional officer conducted a “shake down” of two Muslim inmates’ cells, confiscating all the food they had saved for breaking their fasts, including hamburgers they had traded with other inmates in exchange for the pork they could not eat. That day, neither of the inmates were provided meals to eat.
In a statement announcing the restraining order, CAIR attributed the treatment of the prisoners to the “unprecedented spike in bigotry targeting American Muslims and members of other minority groups since the election of Donald Trump as president.”
In similar suits filed last month, the organization claimed that the Michigan Department of Corrections denied a pregnant Muslim inmate’s right to prayer by refusing her a Quran, a hijab, a prayer rug, meals that do not contain pork, and clergy visits. The complaint characterized the treatment as religious discrimination, noting that Christian inmates are given Bibles and Christian clergy members are allowed unannounced visits, while Muslim religious volunteers are often turned away.
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