Muslim inmate says rights were violated

A former Allen County jail inmate sued Sheriff David Gladieux for violating his religious rights, according to a lawsuit filed in Allen Superior Court this week.

Filed by James Cummings, the lawsuit accuses the jail of failing to provide adequate accommodations for Cummings to practice his religion.

Cummings is Muslim, according to court documents.

He was in the Allen County Jail from July 6, 2014, through September 2014.

According to Allen County court records, he was arrested in July 2014 on a felony charge of burglary and a misdemeanor charge of resisting law enforcement. He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to time in the Allen County Jail.

Cummings informed the jail staff of his religion when he was booked into the jail, according to court documents.

Islam requires prayer five times a day and abstention from pork and pork by-products, and Friday prayer services for adult men are central to the practice, according to court documents.

When he was booked into the jail, Islam was in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan, which requires Muslims to refrain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset and to consume only foods that contain no pork and are not prepared near pork.

In 2013, under then-Sheriff Ken Fries, the Allen County Jail chaplain released guidelines for how to handle Ramadan. Those suggestions included allowing Muslims to pray five times a day in their cells, substituting a brown towel for the prayer rug, and allowing them to receive their meals and drinks in the evening after sundown, according to court documents.

Inmates coming into the jail after the beginning of Ramadan would be allowed to participate, just needing to submit a request form to the chaplain to be added to the list, according to court documents.

According to Cummings, he was denied placement on the required list and was never given a prayer cloth or given the opportunity to participate in Islamic services.

In 2014, Christian inmates were allowed to participate in weekly group religious services, while Muslim inmates are only allowed to pray in their cells, alone and next to the toilet, according to court documents.

Cummings said he was also prohibited from being added to the list to receive halal, or properly prepared meals, according to court documents.

He alleges that the behavior of jail employees, and Gladieux’s “failure to appropriately train and supervise his guards and jail staff as to the procedures necessary to ensure an inmates right to the free exercise of religion,” amounts to a violation of his constitutional rights.

He is seeking a declaration that the jail staff’s behavior amounts to discrimination, as well as attorney fees and costs.

Officials at the Allen County Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on the pending litigation.

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