Monday, March 20, 2006

New Prisoner Cases On Attendance At Religious Services

In Walee v. Crosby, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10633 (MD Fla., March 16, 2006), a federal district court rejected a prisoner's complaint that his free exercise rights were violated when the prison's computer system was not able to list his religious name along with his commitment name on the list of inmates who have been cleared to attend religious services.

In Joseph v. Lewis, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10653 (ED Cal., March 15, 2006), a California federal district court found that a prisoner had a valid free exercise complaint growing out of prison authorities' refusal to permit him to leave a vocational instruction class to attend Friday Jumu'ah prayer services. However his claim that his inmate grievance form was improperly processed was dismissed.