Inmate's Religious Practices

Grant I Would Give to the Inmates as a Penal Administrator

As an administrator of a penal institution, I would grant the inmates opportunities to practice their own religion. Everyone has a right to worship based n his/her religious beliefs since the Supreme Court section that offers inmates the right to practice their religious belief (Whitehead, Jones & Braswell, 2008).  Therefore, prisoners should be allowed to practice their religion so long as it does not violet the security, other inmates and the public. In addition, prisoners should be allowed to obtain and keep the materials that will help them practice their religion such as books, Bibles, and Qurans among religious literature.

Apart from reading materials, religious broadcast programs should be accessible by the prisoners on television and radio to assist them enhances their behavior. I would also permit the inmates to have access to their religious leaders who will do a follow on them and watch their improvement while in prison.

Various religions have a number of ways through which they identify their followers. Such forms of identification differ from one region to another and include appearance, choice of food, prayer times and among others. Therefore, as an administrator I would consider the inmates to be given a special diet of food that is more consistent to their faith (Whitehead, Jones and Braswell, 2008). For instance, some religions do not eat or touch certain food stuff such as pork. Owing to this, there will be a offer of diet to accommodate various types of religion on the basis of the type of food they take or prohibit their members from.

Besides the special meals, the appearance of the inmates which includes aspects such as length of hair, facial hair and clothing will be given consideration without discrimination based on their religious beliefs. For instance, those who ascribe to orthodox or the Jews religion will be given an opportunity not to since it is against their religious practices. However, there will be measure to ensure that inmates do not misuse advantages offered to them because of religious belief to cause insecurity and health concern both to themselves and the neighborhood. Similarly, as an administrator, I would give certain privileges on clothing with the understanding that various religions propagate the use of specific clothing design.

The other aspect that I will consider while dealing with inmates as an individual is prayer time. Such would call for allowing the inmates to freely conduct prayer based on their religious prayer time table with close vigilant to security.

Equal Treatment of All the Inmates

It is important that that all inmates be treated equally and that no discrimination or favor be shown to any inmate with special religious practices. Therefore these religious practices should be considered by the penal administration to ensure that there is no religious discrimination. Moreover, because of religious diversity it is important for the inmates to respect each other’s religion and have the spirit of accommodating each other without reference to their religion.

It is also recommended that religious leaders take it upon themselves to air out their views on the matter and reflect on the courts agreement. However, some religious practices are very risky because they are susceptible to danger for instance the idea of keeping long hair is a dangerous practice because the inmates might hide dangerous weapons in the hair. As a matter of fact it is important for the administrator to examine each religious practice before allowing it.

Suspension of the Entire Inmates’ Rights

Prisons are correctional institutions for inmates’ transform from old habits to reformed persons after serving a sentence. As such, seclusion of inmates should punish them for the crimes committed and enable them regret the consequences of their actions. As such, it is recommended that rights and freedoms enjoyed while in society should completely be cut off while in prison. Through such treatment, inmates will learn from the prison and realize the privileges they denied themselves. Special treatments are not supposed to be given to inmates in order to teach them and also serve as an example to others who are always violating laws of the society. The criminals should not be allowed to enjoy their religious practices to differentiate them from the liberated and the convicted. This would teach the public a good lesson for better societal coexistence.