Last year, Muslim Advocates and Stanford Law School’s Religious Liberty Clinic put all 50 state departments of corrections on notice of their legal obligations to provide religious accommodations to Muslims in their custody during Ramadan, a time of heightened observance and sensitivity for Muslim people on the inside. This work led to an important victory. Colorado used to have a policy of providing Suhoor only at sunrise, after the daily fast had already begun. After we specifically raised this policy deficiency, Colorado has now changed its policy to begin providing Muslim prisoners pre-dawn meals as is religiously appropriate. This year, the Muslim Advocates team, the Stanford Religious Liberty Clinic, and pro bono law firm attorneys are relaunching our campaign directed at carceral facilities nationwide. Additionally, Keeping the Faith helped drive major changes in Michigan. Prior Michigan policies didn't squarely extend the availability of Ramadan accommodations to anyone in the state's Special Alternative Incarceration (“SAI”) program. The SAI is a 90-day, three-phase program intended to facilitate someone’s reintegration into society upon release. Since the submission of our letter last year, Michigan has expanded its religious accommodations to cover people incarcerated in the SAI facilities.
We are witnessing so much cruelty and lawlessness at this moment. Through Keeping the Faith, we try our best to help make the promise of constitutional protections real for those who have been incarcerated. By supporting Muslim Advocates during Ramadan and throughout the year, you’re ensuring that more members of our community can lean on their faith, in the most unforgiving of circumstances, when faith is needed most.
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