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Blue Care Network, the HMO affiliate of Blue Cross and Blue
Jewish inmates at Jackson are contemplating
a battle to save their place of worship.
Shield of Michigan, has a new health care plan for Medicare
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JULIE EDGAR
Senior Writer
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T
he only "pretty" building in
the drab complex that
makes up the State Prison
of Southern Michigan at
Jackson is about to make way for max-
imum security cellblocks.
The building, which was funded
with private donations, houses a
Christian chapel and the Jewish sanc-
tuary, whose turquoise walls, electric
menorah, richly-bound books and ark
seem to argue with the grayness out-
side.
Some Jewish inmates maintain that
the sanctuary was financed by mem-
bers of _the notorious Purple Gang
who did time at Jackson.
However, a Jackson
administrator said the
Herrick Foundation in
Tecumseh paid for the
construction of the build-
ing.
As part of a 1985 court
order, the Michigan
Department of
Corrections is renovating
the Central Complex, a
group of buildings of
which the sanctuary is a
part, for use as a maxi-
mum security facility and
administrative offices.
The sanctuary will re-
An inmate in Jackson Prison's Jewish sanctuary.
open, although reconfig-
ured, when the renovation
is finished in a year or two, said
Harry Whitney, a Jewish lifer who
MDOC spokesperson. Gail Light. She
sued the state and won, in 1989, the
said all religious programming will be
right for Jewish inmates to attend
based there, but access to the building
Shabbat services and Passover seders,
will be more restricted, given its new
put it this way:
status as maximum security. Beds will
"It would be a horrible thing to
take up some of the space now being
take that chapel away, and it would be
used for worship.
absurd. It is one of the few positive
Rabbi Allen Ponn, the part-time
things in a prison system that is turn-
rabbi at Jackson, said he heard that
ing into a nightmare. I feel very
Jewish inmates will be allowed to wor-
defeated over this, and even though I
ship elsewhere in the complex during
know prison isn't a place with con-
renovations, but he knows of no other
cepts of fairness or decency, it's very
place with adequate space.
wrong to consider taking our place of
"Where is our Torah going to be?
worship."
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and 39 hospitals right in the community
✓ Travel benefits for up to six months
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interesting?
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extension 402
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10/24
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96-10
Where are we going to go? The sanc 7,
tuary has an ark, it has a Torah,
Jewish stars, menorot decorations, an
office for me to counsel, an ante-
room. There was a time they threat-
ened to take some of that away and I
ranted. They were going to divide it G
and cut through the wall," Ponn
said.
"The likelihood of legal action is
very strong if they do something thmo
we think is harmful to our interests."
Plus, "This is a beautiful chapel; it's
unique; it's the only pretty building in
the whole facility," the rabbi said. "It's
the only building that stands out as c„,
something human. It's a tremendous
boost to morale to have a chapel
building."
(