California mulls statewide standards for religious garb in jails
United States advocacy groups say the ‘common sense’ bill would help protect incarcerated people’s right to religious freedom and expression.Los Angeles, California, the US – Sajad Shakoor faced a painful choice while incarcerated at California’s Pleasant Valley State Prison in 2002: remove his chitrali cap — a core part of his identity as a Muslim of Pakistani heritage — or end up in a solitary confinement cell known informally as “the hole”.
In order to comply with prison regulations, Shakoor had already made the difficult decision to shave his beard. Other Muslims, many of whom consider growing long beards to be a religious obligation, had refused to do so and been sent to solitary.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023...atewide-standards-for-religious-garb-in-jails
Where should the line be drawn?
In prior centuries incarcerated persons were required to keep hair short for personal hygiene reasons. Is that no longer an issue? Do you think there's a mattress in a U.S. prison cell that isn't infested?
Religious Liberty is splendid. So is stopping off at the store on the way home from work, to pick up a loaf of bread, and a 6 pack.
Criminal convicts forfeit some of that Liberty. Is there a compelling reason exceptions should be made here?
Prison uniforms were in decades past broad horizontal alternating black and white stripes.
More recently, orange jumpsuits.
Where should the line be drawn? How accommodating should U.S. society be, to incarcerated citizens?
