Do Vegan Prisoners Have A Right To Nonviolent Food?

NONVIOLENT FOOD: POSITIVE CHANGE


Jails serving higher percentages of vegan food find health care expense and food costs are reduced
and that prisoners are more peaceful because of less adrenalin and uric acid in the diet.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held in a case that "when a person sincerely
holds beliefs dealing with issues of ‘ultimate concern' that for her occupy a
‘place parallel to that filled by ... God in traditionally religious persons,' those beliefs
represent her religion."
Beliefs "need not be based on ... a mainstream faith." In other words, one need not be affiliated with a particular faith to have a right to a vegan meal.
RLUIPA is the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act -
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/colb/20100331.html

Arizona's Maricopa County Jail has eliminated meat from the menu.

The Summit County Jail in Akron Ohio has in the last 3 months had a vegetarian kitchen. Prisoners who want meat may buy it in the vending machines.

Ohio prisons have removed pig flesh from menu after Muslim lawsuit
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ohio-removes-pork-prison-menus-nod-muslim-inmates

Florida's Department of Corrections has eliminated mammal flesh from the menu.

Florida is being asked to provide kosher diet upon request.

18 organizations including the ACLU, the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Jewish Committee,
the Aleph Institute, the Rabbinical Council of America, and the Hindu American Foundation — have filed amicus briefs
asking that Florida give kosher food upon request to inmates. 35 states already do.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/18/3403274/kosher-prison-food-lawsuit-goes.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/18/3403274/kosher-prison-food-lawsuit-goes.html

Professor Richard Schwartz, author of an online course in Jewish vegetarianism has said that it is impossible to be kosher if not a vegetarian
since some blood always remains in the smallest arterioles of a butchered animal. http://jewishveg.com/schwartz

Other vegan meal situations
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/06/vegan-jail-food-san-francisco_n_891169.html
vegan prisoner meals

Several thousand health professionals recommending vegan diet http://pcrm.org

THE MARK OF A DRAGGING FOOT ON THE SANDS OF TIME

Dave McDonald was in jail in California on a dubious drug charge. A vegan who had been vegetarian
for 42 years, the 73 year old man was not given vegan mails by the Marin County Jail.
He lost 50 pounds. Being a philosophical vegan was not acceptable to jail officials.
He had to be affiliated with a particular organized religion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/us/05bcjames.html?_r=0


Federal judge Shira A. Scheindli refused to order officials at Rikers Island Prison in New York
to provide vegan meals on command
http://www.vegparadise.com/news33.html

For some Illinois prisoners, the DC based Weston A Price Foundation, founded by Sally Fallon Morell a foundation which promotes animal flesh and whose funding is questionable, is suing on behalf of some Illinois prisoners. Its objective: more cadaver pieces on the menu.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/28/soy-diet-prompts-prisoners-lawsuit/
The foundation promotes among other carrion products cod liver oil, which is full of radiation,
mercury etc. Dick Gregory: Eating fish oil is like eating the filter out of a car.


BOOKS

In some prisons, only the Bible or the Koran are allowed, no other spiritual texts and nothing for atheists.

PHONES

Phone systems have been privatized. Prisoners must have someone on the outside willing to pay the outrageous collect call charges of ATT and other phone systems.

LIBRARIES

Rather than give your books to Goodwill or the Salvation Army which throw away 90% of their hardbound books, why not donate them to a prison library, one which is not draconian in its rules.

SAFETY

Prisoners have a right to a safe environment, free of rape or physical battering.

CLEANLINESS

Prisoners have a right to a clean environment.


VEGANS IN PRISON FOR NONVIOLENT ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIONS

http://www.narn.org/vips/

The picture is of Dave McDonald who lost 50 pounds during a 99 day sentence on a dubious drug charge.

http://blogs.bgsu.edu/justveggies/files/2011/11/mcdonald-vegetarian-1.jpg