Court: N.H. state prison inmate should get kosher diet

AP's Katherine Webster reports that a federal judge has ruled that New Hampshire prison inmate Albert Kuperman, an Orthodox Jew, must be given kosher food, even if he has been caught with non-kosher foods:

Kuperman's lawyers said revoking his kosher diet violated his First Amendment right to practice religion, and U.S. Magistrate Judge James Muirhead agreed.

"If a diabetic inmate were placed on a medically appropriate diet and was then caught purchasing a candy bar from the canteen, the prison would not be justified in removing the inmate from his medical diet and forcing him to eat a high sugar diet for six months for the violation," Muirhead wrote. "Similarly, an inmate eating an extra helping or unauthorized item isn't restricted to bread and water for six months."

Kuperman signed a form acknowledging that the punishment for eating non-kosher food would be a six-month suspension of his kosher diet, but Kuperman testified at a hearing that he bought meat from the canteen for another inmate who was 'strong-arming' him. Kuperman said he did not eat it.

The magistrate's report also said Kuperman was accused of eating non-kosher chicken from the prison kitchen.

Muirhead agreed with Kuperman's lawyer, who argued it served no legitimate security purpose to punish a sincerely religious inmate by barring an essential religious practice.

"Removing an orthodox Jew from a kosher diet serves, religiously speaking, to distance an inmate from his own spirituality and religious practice," Muirhead wrote. "Such a move has a direct negative impact on the inmate's ability to better himself or maintain himself spiritually."