Convicted murderer Ronald Caruso isn’t Jewish, but he’s won the right to eat kosher in prison. The inmate converted to Islam in 1988 and declared his wish to be fed only meat that met halachic standards, as opposed to whatever mystery slop the other guys are served. Prison officials told him if he wanted eat the same kosher meals as the Jewish inmates, he’d have to change his religion to Judaism on record.
Caruso did what many prisoners with a gripe and too much time on their hands do: he filed a lawsuit. Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Marcia S. Krieger ruled that he can have his kosher beef and eat it, too, no religious changes necessary. Krieger lambasted the Colorado Department of Corrections for “doing as little as possible” to accomodate inmates’ religious practices and dismissed prison lawyer’s implications that Caruso was insincere in his attempts to maintain a kosher diet.
Frankly, it sounds like this guy is setting himself up for a hit in the shower: Aligning himself with Jewish practices but not the Jews, demanding different food from everyone else, provoking prison employees. If he’s not the sincere religious man the judge believes him to be, he’ll find a way to file a suit about a non-kosher finger in his chili soon enough.