Court Upholds Denial of Prisoner's Bible Course Materials

In McNeal v. Martin, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28177 (ED Mo., Nov. 16, 2005), a Missouri federal district court rejected a prisoner's First Amendment and RLUIPA free exercise of religion claim. Jail officials refused to give him materials from a Bible correspondence course because of a jail policy that prohibited inmates from having bulky or voluminous paper materials in their cells. Officials say that loose papers can be used to hide contraband or start fires. The jail allowed inmates to keep one book, and plaintiff had a Christian Bible, which he agrees is the primary religious text of his faith. The court held that the plaintiff prisoner did not produce any convincing arguments to show that the correspondence course was somehow necessary to the exercise of his religion.