Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Switchboard >

Freedom of religion, except...: Satanism in Jail.

18:07 / 03.09.02

Lexington, Kentucky

The state Department of Corrections suspended formal satanic services by inmates at one Kentucky prison yesterday until officials can research and develop a statewide policy.

Inmates at Green River Correctional Complex, a medium-security prison in Central City, have been allowed since earlier this summer to hold weekly satanic services as part of the official religious services calendar, said Lisa Carnahan, a spokes-woman for the state Department of Corrections.

The state suspended the services after the Herald-Leader inquired about the issue this week.

Inmates in at least two of the state's other 14 prisons -- Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex at West Liberty and the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women at Pewee Valley -- practice Satanism on their own, said Carnahan, who surveyed the institutions' wardens.

There is no statewide policy on whether Satanism can be practiced by inmates, and the decision is left up to each warden.

"We honestly didn't know it was on the religious calendar," Carnahan said yesterday. "We are researching it to see what we are required to allow under the law. But we've found information that indicates that satanic services could be a threat to the institutions, so for now we won't aid or abet satanic worship."

There's more at the link.

So: giving the lie to 'freedom of religion'? Or necessary step to stem the tide of evil?

Foust is SO authentic

18:17 / 03.09.02

Depends. Is this your garden-variety Anton Levey "impulses are good and natural" hedonistic form of Satanism? Or are they going to start sacrificing whatever small animals they can find in the prison?

18:37 / 03.09.02

Firstly, the prisoners are in jail, which essentially curtails some of their freedoms.

Secondly, there seems to be some concern of the possibility of harm. One of the issues mentioned in the article was that of revenge.
"We've looked at the satanic bible ... and are convinced that what it advocates would put our prisons at risk, safety-wise," said Donald Kaspar, chaplain for the Texas system. "One of their tenets is revenge -- if somebody hurts you, hurt them back."

This might be considered an unhelpful doctrine in the prison environment.

Nietzsch E. Coyote

04:28 / 04.09.02

The taking away of religeous freedom should count as cruel and unusual punishment.

08:29 / 04.09.02

Or are they going to start sacrificing whatever small animals they can find in the prison?

Funnily enough I was talking to a Florida lawyer several years ago who told me that he had just come across a case where an inmate serving multiple life terms for multiple homicides had sued the prison governor for breaching his constitutional rights to practice his religion. The prisoner was a satanist and the breach of his rights in question was failing to supply doves for sacrifice. The case had not come for trial when I spoke to this lawyer and I don't know how the case panned out, though I imagine that we would have heard something if the prisoner had succeeded in his multi-million dollar claim.

Slightly off-topic, but connected to the question of the attitude of legal institutions towards non-mainstream religious practices: an English barrister I know was involved in a case where one of the parties sought to get the case adjourned because he had to travel to the Dominican Republic to perform a voodoo ceremony to lay to rest his father's soul. He told the judge that if the ceremony wasn't performed within a certain window of time his father's soul would wander the earth for 60 years. Now you might expect a stuffy old English judge to be unimpressed with this and dismiss it as "mumbo jumbo", but, (to his credit in my view) the judge accepted that this was a valid religious ceremony and adjourned the case. Cynics might say that he just didn't want to take any chances and fuck around with that ol' fashioned voodoo though.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:58 / 04.09.02

hir- Kind of reminds me of Mark Chapman changing his plea for shooting Lennon from "not guilty by reason of insanity" to "guilty", and telling the judge God had come to him and told him to do it. As God and the "voices" had all been telling Chapman NOT to shoot Lennon, insanity was ruled out as a cause...

Back on-topic... I think as regards the "hit 'em back" part, there would probably be various PARTS of religious observance that a prison would naturally not allow... especially those involving pilgrimages and the like.

It certainly seems a little unfair to me... seems no less able to be taken seriously than any other belief system... as long as the "necessary" curbs are put on behaviour (which they would be anyway, it being a prison and all), actual observance shouldn't be a cause for alarm. Amusement, maybe, but alarm? I think not.

15:04 / 05.09.02

--fenris23 wrote:--
>The taking away of religeous freedom should count as cruel and >unusual punishment.

The US ruled back in the 80s that even though a punishment may be cruel, if it is applied often enough, it is not unusual and therefore allowed. The case in question was someone fighting being sentenced 30 years for posession of cocaine. If being denied religious freedom is done often enough, it is cruel, but not unusual.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:37 / 05.09.02

As Foust asked, has anyone been able to verufy whether it's proper Satanism or the Made-for-TV-and-sad-teenagers-who-do-it-just-to-piss-off-their-parents kind?

07:28 / 06.09.02

"We've looked at the satanic bible ... and are convinced that what it advocates would put our prisons at risk, safety-wise," said Donald Kaspar, chaplain for the
Texas system. "One of their tenets is revenge -- if somebody hurts you, hurt them back."

This might be considered an unhelpful doctrine in the prison environment.

But doesn't the Old Testament do the old eye for an eye thing too? They don't ban people being Jewish in prisons.

Jack The Bodiless

09:11 / 06.09.02

No, just outside them, as a rule. (Aside: Jews don't follow the Old Testament, do they?)

There are so many different varieties of satanism that you'd have to check into every individual prisoner's beliefs... something I would assume people might do anyway if you were going to lock someone away for a long time. Banning it completely is foolish. Stoatie's right - their individual freedoms are restricted anyway. So they should be able to practice their religion up to a point, and no more.

09:57 / 06.09.02

Denominational Satanism... it seems that no-matter how much you rebel, you always turn out like your parents.

15:05 / 09.09.02

"we've found information that indicates that satanic services could be a threat to the institutions" - in other words, it goes against mainstream thought.

If Satanism encourages sacrificing animals and revenge then ban sacrificing animals and violent forms of revenge rather than Satanism itself. Banning a concept or philosophy is always dangerous. However, if the practice goes against prison rules then allow the theory only.

Jack The Bodiless

15:23 / 09.09.02

Well, the generally accepted forms of Satanism nowadays (cf La Vey's Church Of Satan are based around raising the individual above society, satisfying the ego, indulging in and/or legitimising the taboo, and promoting individual misanthropy. Hardly ideal to allow people you're trying to reassimilate into society to recede further from it - I think that's what they mean by "a threat to the institutions."

But then the truly dangerous criminals will find what they're after in any religion and any holy book. With its emphasis on individual betterment and bald philosophies rendered into basic english, and being mostly free of jargon and mysticism (another of La Vey's trademarks), a lot of criminals will find it actually very boring to be a member of the Church of Satan for kicks alone. If they're genuinely into the philosophies, on the other hand, then as it's really more a way of living than anything else, there's really effectively no way they can stop observance of the main body of this satanic religion. Offshoots and small cults tend to do things differently, with more superficial panache and obfuscation.

08:59 / 16.09.02

I don't know about American law but in the UK this would be covered by the Human Rights Act 1998. Under that the European Convention on Human Rights is incorporated into UK law, including article 9 - freedom of conscience and religion. Paragraph 2 limits the absolute right as follows:
"2. Freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others."

You could limit the practice of Satanism on the grounds of protecting public safety (particularly in a prison), public order (again, in a prison), health (if it involves unhygenic sacrifices and practices), or the rights and freedoms of others (if it involves encouraging harm to others). Morals usually means stopping things like sexual abuse of minors these days, but some countries have interpreted this to mean stuff like encouraging polygamy.