The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is in the process of changing the California Code of Regulations (CCR) to include religious diets for Muslim prisoners.
The code change will allow Muslim and other prisoners, with religious dietary obligations, to apply for and receive halal meat in their daily meals. Currently the CDCR has two options to alternative diets outside of the normal food it serves to prisoners: vegetarian and Jewish kosher. The code change will add a third diet: halal meat alternative.
Eating halal food, with an emphasis on specific meat preparation, is a tenet of Islamic faith. According to Islamic law animals slaughtered for consumption must be dispatched humanely. The humane slaughter is performed by a Muslim (person of the book) using a sharp instrument to cut the animals vessels in the neck or upper part of the chest allowing for the blood to drain and reciting the name of Allah at the time of slaughter.
The proposed change to the CDCR regulations comes amid a growing number of law-suits filed by Muslim prisoners who claim that they have the right to practice their religion while incarcerated, which includes conforming to a halal diet. The law-suits are based on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA). The state asserts that RLUIPA “does not include religious dietary accommodations specifically for Muslim inmates.” The petitioners in the law suites claim otherwise. The CDCR regulation change on its face is meant to quell the expenditures to answer the law- suits.
“The purpose of this action is to avoid future costly litigating and unnecessary expense to the taxpayers of the State of California,” is written in the notice of regulation change.
According to the regulation change, the halal meat program will be available in all CDCR adult facilities state-wide. Participation in the program will be open to Muslims and other prisoners with religious needs to consume halal meat. Prisoners will have to apply for the program by filling out a CDCR 3030 form (Request for Religious Diet) and submitting it to the institutional Muslim chaplain who will determine eligibility.
The proposed regulation change is in the public hearing stage. There is dialog about the difference between providing halal meat and providing an actual halal meal to Muslims, which needs to be worked out. The implementation of the new religious dietary program is pending.
