Jewish inmate requests kosher meals from federal appeals court

Examples of kosher food labels. (Fotolia.com) Examples of kosher food labels. (Fotolia.com) Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Jewish inmate requests kosher meals from federal appeals court 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A federal appeals court will decide whether a Jewish orthodox inmate has the right to a kosher diet as he serves a 75-year sentence for a 1993 Houston murder.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans will begin oral arguments at 9 am. Monday in the ongoing legal dispute between Max Moussazadeh and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Moussazadeh was convicted in connection with a 1993 murder in Harris County for serving as a lookout while his three co-defendants shot a man to death during a Houston robbery. A juvenile at the time, he received a reduced sentence for testifying against one of the other defendants, court records show. He is serving his sentence at the Stiles Unit in Beaumont, which does not provide kosher meals, his attorneys said.

In 2005, Moussazadeh, now 35, sued after the state denied his request for a kosher meal plan to accommodate his religious beliefs.

At that time he was serving out his sentence at the Eastham Unit in Lovelady. In his original complaint, he argued that he was forced to eat non-kosher foods.

"I feel that I am going against my beliefs and that I will be punished by God for not practicing my religion correctly," he wrote in the 2005 complaint.

A lower court has dismissed Moussazadeh's case.

Moussazadeh's attorneys allege that the state unlawfully restricted his religious exercise in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, according to a statement from the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the inmate.

That act, passed in 2000, forbids government to restrict the religious rights of institutionalized persons.

In the U.S., 35 prison systems provide kosher diets for Jewish prisoners, as well as the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Beckett Fund estimates that the Texas prison system would be able to feed all its 884 Jewish inmates for 0.02 percent of its annual food budget.

Kosher meals are based on the Jewish teaching in the Torah that forbidden foods taint not only the body but the soul.

Untainted containers

A kosher diet allows all non-animal products, certain typical or poultry and fish that have fins and scales but forbids pork and any mixing of dairy products and meat. To keep kosher, a meal must be prepared in containers that are untainted by any non-kosher food.

The state's prison system provides inmates with a choice between pork-free, meat-free and regular diet trays at most units, none of which is considered kosher.

In 2007, Texas established a "kosher kitchen" at one of its prison facilities at the Stringfellow Unit in Rosharon, where it provides a kosher diet to inmates.

Moussazadeh was transferred to this unit for a few years and the case was ruled moot.

He was later transferred to the Stiles Unit, which offers basic kosher products for purchase. The inmate's attorneys argue that the cost of the meals is expensive and that they are limited.

The state now argues that Moussazadeh did not complain to the Stiles Unit before filing the suit and has the option to purchase the pre-packaged kosher meals.

erin.mulvaney@chron.com