Is it legal for prison to withhold wicca books from prisoners?

Question

If a prisoner wants to learn about wicca or witchcraft is it legal for a chaplin to withhold that information? ie refuse rights to such books?

Answer 1

You need to know what the prison regulations are. In some states access to religious material and religious services are limited unless a certain number of inmates in the same institution make an official declaration that they are adherents of that particular religion and that religion is on the list of "allowable" religions. In Ohio that number is 5. And just as an FYI it hasn't been that many years ago that Asatru was not an allowed religion because of its prison link to the Aryan nation and gang violence. Prisons have a much wider latitude than other public institutions because of their inherent safety concerns.



In addition neither the prison library nor the prison ministry are required to provide any specific genre of reading materials. If an inmate has indicated an official religious affiliation however they probably will be able to purchase prescribed religious materials like books and ritual materials that don't violate safety regulations from an approved mail house. In Ohio, Azure Green is approved.



I am aware that in some instances where the gatekeeper to religious materials is "Christian" problems may arise due to lack of constitutional oversight and general official malaise. In your situation if the gatekeeper is violating prison regulations and blocking access for "personal" reasons, use the established inmate complaint procedure explained in the inmate handbook. This complaint procedure can eventually lead to a civil lawsuit requiring lawyers and court fees which can take years to work its way through the system. Most inmates have neither the time nor the resources to pursue such a course of action.

Answer 2

If you're referring to the religion of Wicca (not witchcraft which is a secular practice), then chaplains and prison personnel do not have the right to withhold. But they often do, or at least just say "we don't have any books on that." There ARE Wiccan prison ministries. I strongly recommend that any inmate who wishes to study Wicca or another Pagan religion search "Wiccan Prison Ministry" to find out if there is a trained Pagan minister in the area who can come into the prison to conduct classes and rituals.



Conversely, if such an inmate can find and write to a local Pagan minister, it's perfectly within the prisoner's rights to request a visit from the minister to directly hand-deliver such books and offer spiritual counseling. If the prisoner is in Minnesota, I'll do it myself. Just e-mail me.

Answer 3

A prison chaplain's job is to minister to all people of all religions, Wicca is in the chaplain's handbook. However, I'm not sure it's the chaplain's job to provide reading matter to prisoners.



If he does so as a courtesy to some prisoners (ie, handing them bibles he happens to have), that's one thing. If he doesn't happen to have or want to get books on Wicca or Witchcraft, I'm not sure that there's anything legally wrong with that.



So basically check with the prison-- are the chaplains required to provide the inmates with religious reading matter upon request? If so, then he probably can't withhold books on religions he doesn't like.



But the person would have to fight it legally and get some kind of court ruling if he really hoped to achieve his goal.

Answer 4

Well clearly he wasn't being a model prisoner or he do not have had his mail privileges remove. The few circumstances that I've had private skills of, is that the Defendants had been writing the victims on their instances, (which they weren't feel to do, beneath their sentence). So there mail privileges were taken from them. But,, if your referring to contact with their attorneys, then that is slightly distinctive. I do not know if there may be any case law on the discipline, however its a pleasant question. I did some research, and this is a brief abstract of a few of what I located. Prison directors are not able to unreasonably prevent or censor a prisoner's outgoing mail. In 1974 the Supreme court docket, in Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396, ninety four S. Ct. 1800, forty L. Ed. 2d 224, dominated that the California department of Corrections could now not censor the direct private correspondence of prisoners except such censorship was crucial to additional important interests of the federal government in protection, order, and rehabilitation. The court additionally held that a system have to be based to check that censorship, when appropriate, is neither arbitrary nor unduly burdensome. Unreasonably being the phrase lol. Once more, exceptional question, so i am gonna seem into it more. If ya discover something let us know!

Answer 5

I think we need more information on the matter. I am confident that no prisoner can simply request a book about a religion and the prison or chaplain be required to provide it. There are no Wiccan holy books, so comparing the situation with Bibles or Korans doesn't really work. There's simply books about Wicca just as there are books about Christianity.



Chaplains are certainly required to treat all religions equally, but that doesn't mean you can get whatever you want in the name of religion.

Answer 6

It's not up to the chaplain to provide or withhold books regardless of if they're religious in nature or not. That's up to the library.



But no, prisons cannot withhold books of a religious nature to practitioners of that religion...that would be religiously discriminatory.

Answer 7

WICCA IS A USA GOVERNMENT DECLARED OFFICAL RELIGION. if a prison staff of priest is refusing such books make an administrative complaint. then complain again to the superintendent of the prison. then tell them cause you can not have your wicca book you need civil filing papers to sue for violating your freedom of religion. your get that book real quick even if the super in ten dent has to drive to wal mart to buy it him/her self. lol

Answer 8

even thou I don't agree with wicca and anything other than the bible,we should be able to have whatever books we want its a free country "right"...but however in the prison system if they find anything a threat or something that will rial the inmates up anymore they will ban it.I don't agree but they do what they want their even taking Christianity out of the military

Answer 9

It would be against a chaplains beliefs and ethics to provide this books even if he had them. But the prison library would be an option.



No one can be forced to provide access to something they are morally opposed to. That is their right.



Prison libraries are secular.

Answer 10

No. They can either refuse anything, or allow everything. They can't discriminate, like saying Christians can get holy books but Muslims can't. It's either all or nothing.

Answer 11

No, freedom of religion. The chaplain can say whatever he thinks of it which is his choice. However, its your choice to believe or not believe in whatever you want.