TRI In The News
Denied religious CD, Virginia inmate sues
RICHMOND, Va. - A Virginia inmate claims in a lawsuit that prison officials violated his right to exercise his religious beliefs when they refused to let him order a sermon on compact disc.
The Rutherford Institute filed the lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of Kyle Mabe, who is challenging a Virginia Department of Corrections directive allowing inmates to receive music CDs but not spoken-word CDs. No hearing has been scheduled yet in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.
Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the prison system, said he was not aware of the lawsuit and that he cannot comment on pending litigation. He was also unable to immediately explain the rationale for the department's CD policy.
According to the lawsuit, Mabe tried to order a CD with a Christian sermon titled "Life Without a Cross" from Still Waters Ministries of Kentucky while he was an inmate at St. Brides Correctional Center in Chesapeake last September. He says the sermon was not available in written form.
Mabe, 28, alleges that prison officials refused to process his request, citing the ban on non-music CDs. His subsequent grievance was rejected by the warden and a department regional director.
The lawsuit alleges that the department's policy violates inmates' religious freedom and equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution, as well as a 2000 federal law that prohibits unnecessary burdens on prisoners' free exercise of religion.
"Prisoners have a constitutional and statutory right to receive information," said John W. Whitehead, president of the Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group that focuses on First Amendment and religious freedom issues. He said prison officials have a right to inspect such materials, but can't block access to them.
Mabe, now a prisoner at Indian Creek Correctional Center in Chesapeake, is serving sentences totaling eight years and seven months for larceny, drug and breaking and entering convictions in Williamsburg, York County and Hampton, according to the Department of Corrections.
