An Inclusive Litany

9/18/96

As a result of the 1990 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, prisoners have demanded to be supplied with candles and masks for Wiccan, Luciferian, and Satanist services, while Native Americans demand bear claws, porcupine quills, coyote feet and sweat lodges.

Florida inmate Ian Deco Lightbourne sued the prison system for compensatory and punitive damages, claiming his right as a Rastafarian to wear dreadlocks and possess a cassette tape player and audio cassettes of his reggae music, a portable keyboard for composing and reciting spiritual songs, and a poster of his "spiritual mentor," the late reggae singer Bob Marley.

James Robert Kalway, another Florida inmate, claimed that he must masturbate in front of female correctional officers as part of his religion—which he calls Shrat Shabt Squt Mats—and that a disciplinary report he received after he practiced his religion violated his rights under the new law.