COSTLY KOSHER MEALS FOR PRISON INMATES?

The courts have ordered that Jewish prison inmates who request them, must be served kosher meals

The New York Times reports that Florida, which has a large Jewish population and stopped providing religious meals to prison inmates in 2007, is now under a court order to provide kosher food to eligible inmates, a “routine and court-tested practice in most states.”

Kosher meals are at least four times as costly as are the meals routinely provided to prison inmates. Because those kosher meals tend to be better, there has been a surge of gentiles requesting kosher foods in addition to the Jewish inmates.

As a person of the Jewish faith, and proud of it, I have no sympathy for Jewish convicts in their request for kosher foods. First of all, only Orthodox Jews, the smallest percentage of Jewish inmates, are required to eat kosher. Reform Jews, by far the largest percentage, and Conservative Jews are not required to keep kosher. And I suspect that most of the Reform Jews in prison were not practicing Jews to begin with.

As for the Orthodox Jews in prison, besides committing the felonious crimes for which they are serving time, they violated the Ten Commandments and the teachings of the Torah. Thus, in my opinion, they do not deserve to get special kosher meals in prison.

I think the courts have gotten it wrong on this issue, especially concerning Reform Jews.

Since the kosher meals cost so much more than standard prison fare, let the Jewish prisoners who demand kosher meals pay for them. Otherwise, fuck ‘em!