As for prisoners, they can held accountable but not others? It doesn’t work that way. The people who violate what little rights prisoners have need to be held accountable and suffer the consequences for their behavior. Nobody should get away with violating the rights of ANYONE including prisoners.

I worked for more than a year with a Wiccan group in a state prison. There was also an Asatru group that the prison system (in its short-sightedness) forced to share holidays with the Wiccan group. Basically, that meant when the Wiccans met for Sabbats or Full Moons was the only time the Asatru prisoners could meet without a sponsor. They staked out one corner of the chapel yard (outside was where we did ritual) as their own and kept to themselves.

This kind of thing is quite common in the prisons. The Wiccan inmates were constantly complaining about being nickel and dimed on rules and regulations. Think of your last trip to the airport (if recent) and the debates about whether someone in line could take a container that holds 4 oz but only had 2 oz in it into a plane that only allowed 2 oz. (The answer is normally “no.”).

The prisons generally have an official list of allowed holidays, items, etc. These are very specific and no deviation is allowed. If the list says the inmate is allowed 6 sticks of incense that are eight inches long and four that are six inches or are nine inches showed up, the administrators can deny the prisoner the incense. These lists are generally created to guarantee that prisoners have access to necessary materials for their faiths but they also wind up being a stick to hit them with…

That being said, prisoners are a contentious and litigious lot. They have no power or control over their lives, being told what to do and how to do it, so any chance that they have to “stick it to the man” about anything to do with their faith will be taken up by many of them. I saw inmates arguing with staff over the tiniest things because it gave them some measure of leverage to do so.

Because of all of this, religious issues (and persecution) in prisons is very hard to get a grip on. Non-mainstream faiths ARE treated differently than “normal” ones, often much worse. The Wiccans had to hold their services beneath a 30 foot tall cross if they wanted to do them at all and the head chaplain had been overheard to mutter that he didn’t consider their faith a real religion. That being the case, the inmates often create a lot of their own problems and blow things out of proportion in their zeal to screw with the staff or the system.

I found the whole thing quite draining to work within when I worked with the group. At least the first 15 to 20 minutes of any two hour monthly meeting that I came for was filled with the guys giving a list of their current issues and grievances with the staff. gener