Prisoner Sues Over Revocation of Kosher Diet

The Rocky Mountain News today reports on a law suit filed in federal court against against the Colorado Department of corrections by an Orthodox Jewish prison inmate who lost 30 pounds while subsisting on peanut butter and crackers after he was barred from eating kosher food. The suit, filed by the ACLU, alleges that prison refused to let Timothy Sherline have kosher food for a year as punishment for allegedly violating dining hall rules by putting pats of butter and packets of salad dressing in his pockets. Prisoners needing special religious diets are required to sign an agreement that allows for the diet to be revoked for a year if the inmate commits two dining hall violations. Sherline had also been accused of buying non-Kosher food at the prison commissary, but he said that he purchased it as a gift for his cell mate.