14 | OCTOBER 24 • 2019 

J

ewish inmates in Michigan 
prisons will start receiv-
ing kosher meals under a 
proposed settlement reached 
Oct. 12 in a class-action 
lawsuit handled by the Civil 
Rights Clinic at Michigan State 
University, led by Professor 
Daniel Manville. “We got the 
entry for preliminary approv-
al and the notices will begin 
going up in the 16 Michigan 
prisons that house Jewish 
inmates,” Manville said.
 Manville, an ex-offender 
who spent four years in prison 
in the 1970s, is an advocate 
for prisoners’
 rights who likes 
to take on cases “that make an 
impact,” he says. 
He’
s been working 
on this case since 
2013. 
 “It stemmed 
from a lawsuit by 
Muslim prison-
ers who wanted 
a halal diet,” 
he explains. “The Michigan 
Department of Corrections 
(MDOC) agreed to provide 
those prisoners with a vegan 
diet to settle the claim. They 
then extended that vegan diet 
to Jewish prisoners who want-
ed kosher meals — kind of a 
one-size-fits-all religious meal 
solution.”
 Former prisoner Michael 

Arnold filed suit after that 
decision because, he said, a 
vegan diet lacks kosher meat 
and dairy and, most impor-
tantly, doesn’
t adhere to kosher 
principles of preparation, such 
as proscriptions against con-
tamination with non-kosher 
utensils and prep areas. 
 Arnold, who told the Detroit 
Free Press, “the policy of 
enforced vegetarianism was 
targeted” at Jewish prisoners, 
was dropped from the suit 
when he was released from 
prison. 
 Arnold’
s original lawsuit 
eventually became “Gerald 
Ackerman and Mark Shaykin 
v. Heidi Washington,” the suit 
that was just settled, which 
resolves prisoners’
 claims to 
kosher meals.
 Currently, inmates have 
the option to purchase kosher 
meals and products at the pris-
on commissary twice a month, 
but, Manville says, the cost is 
prohibitive for most inmates. 
 “Each meal costs around 
$5-$6, which is hard to afford 
when you’
re earning $30 a 
month in your prison job and 
need to buy shampoo and 
other incidentals.” 
 Under the proposed set-
tlement, which is subject to 
a fairness hearing Dec. 11 in 
front of U.S. District Judge 

Linda Parker in Detroit, Jewish 
inmates who keep kosher will 
be entitled to meals prepared 
in a certified kosher kitchen 
within the facility or certified 
kosher meals from a third-par-
ty vendor. Facilities that pro-
duce kosher meals onsite must 
submit to inspections to main-
tain kosher certification.
 MDOC has cited the cost 
of creating kosher kitchens 
at $100,000 for each of the 
16 facilities holding Jewish 
prisoners, or $1.6 million. 
“Which seems a little high,” 
Manville said.
 According to MDOC, there 
are about 600 Jewish pris-
oners in Michigan’
s 33,000 
prison population. Of those 
600, Manville said, between 
85 and 193 are approved for 
kosher meals. “The discrep-
ancy in the numbers likely 
stems from the 2013 settlement 
that forced those requesting 
kosher meals to eat the vegan 
meals,
” Manville said. “Many 
Jewish prisoners dropped their 
requests for kosher and opted 
for the general menu.
”
 Prisoners not already 
approved for kosher meals 
can become eligible for kosher 
meals by living kosher for 60 
days, which means that prison-
ers must use only the religious 
diet line for meals and may not 

“purchase, receive, possess or 
consume” any non-kosher item 
from the commissary, visitors 
or another prisoner. If at any 
time they are found to have 
consumed something non-ko-
sher, they have to restart the 
60-day process.
 “That provision was added 
to the settlement to ensure 
Michigan didn’
t have 32,000 
prisoners decide they were 
Jewish once they read the 
notice,
” Manville said.
 The settlement does not 
resolve plaintiffs’
 meat and 
dairy consumption claims, 
Manville adds. The issue of 
whether Jewish prisoners will 
receive kosher meat and dairy 
meals 56 days a year (each 
Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom 
Kippur, Sukkot and Shavuot) 
is still in dispute and was just 
litigated early this month, 
“although all parties have 
agreed to at least one cheese-
cake per year,
” Manville said. 
“We expect a ruling on that 
early next year.
” 
Manville said MDOC has 
claimed in court that it is reluc-
tant to provide meat and dairy 
meals to kosher-observant pris-
oners 56 times a year because 
of the cost, which, according to 
Manville, would add $10,000-
$20,000 per year in expenses 
for MDOC. 

Settlement Reached

Michigan’
s Jewish prisoners win right to kosher meals.

JACKIE HEADAPOHL ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Jews in the D

Daniel
Manville

MSU

