The Forward yesterday carried a lengthy report on how Jews in state prisons deal with anti-Semitism, finding that "In some states Jewish prisoners face as much or more anti-Semitism from staff as from fellow inmates." The report also quotes an expert who concludes: "Those who are the most out front about being Jewish get the least hassle [from fellow-inmates]. We have inmates wearing yarmulkes and tzitzit in the most dangerous prisons in the country, and no one touches them." The report goes on:
Perhaps the most noticeably different thing about Jewish prisoners is their access to kosher food, which is almost universally considered superior to regular prison fare.... “You wouldn’t believe the politics around the kosher food on the yard,” said J.D. Rollins, a since-freed Muslim prisoner who befriended numerous Jews while behind bars in California. Inmates and staff both resented the special treatment they thought the diet represented. Kosher food would often be tampered with or stolen by inmates in the kitchens, both to punish those on the diet and to barter the valuable goods.
...[K]osher food is so desirable that five-sixths of prisoners on the diet are non-Jews. They can do this by exploiting the vagueness of the law, which grants the right to a religious diet to those with a loosely-defined “sincerely held” religious belief.
