A lawsuit over the St. Clair County Jail’s religious dietary screening process has been settled and paves the way for improvements, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced Thursday.
“We welcome the jail’s decision to modify the religious dietary screening policy to one that does not violate the constitutional rights of inmates of all faith backgrounds requesting a religious diet,” CAIR-MI staff attorney Lena Masri said in a statement.
Among provisions ordered as part of a consent decree, the jail policy allows inmates requesting a religious diet to provide letters from clergy attesting to their faith as well as offer other evidence supporting the sincerity of their religious beliefs.
The suit challenged the constitutionality of the jail’s religious dietary screening process after Aaron Utley, a former inmate, was denied a request for a diet deemed halal, or prepared under Islamic requirements, the group said.
“The policy required inmates of different faith backgrounds, including Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity, to pass a detailed test written by the jail that judged their knowledge of scripture in order to receive a religious diet,” the group said in a statement. “Utley was denied a halal food diet after receiving a ‘failing’ grade on the Islam ‘test.’”
Capt. Tom Bliss, the jail administrator with the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office, said the policy was not drastically changed with the settlement but enhanced.
“We’re just tweaking it,” he said, adding officials having been preparing for the update. “We believe we have a better product.”
The move follows a federal judge approving a settlement guaranteeing halal meals for Muslims in Michigan prisons. The agreement in November ended years of litigation, according to the Associated Press.