The Religious Rights of Krishna Prisoners

[Note: I asked the Econ 17 ClassChat chatbot to help draft this blog post, but severe editing was still needed.]

A significant religious freedom case is developing in Florida, where the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is preparing to file a lawsuit against the state's prison system over the ban of a Hindu holy text.

As explained in this Religion News Service article, since April 2022, The Bhagavad Gita As It Is—an English translation and commentary of the central Hindu scripture—has been prohibited from all Florida prisons, affecting inmates like Rakesh Patel at Jefferson Correctional Institution. Prison officials justified the ban by claiming the text was "written in code" and not easily interpretable by staff, despite it being a straightforward English translation with commentary.

Florida prisoners do have access to other religious materials like the Koran and the Bible, so this ban on the Krishna text appears at face value to be targeting one particular religious group.

This case highlights how religious rights and regulations are always being negotiated. ISKCON argues that denying access to sacred texts violates inmates' ability to practice their faith and maintain their religious identity while incarcerated, while the prison argues that there the text raises security concerns. ISKCON is preparing to file a religious discrimination lawsuit, and the impact of the lawsuit can extend beyond Patel to other Krishna prisoners.

As discussed in class, regulations can take various forms—from official policies to informal restrictions—and can significantly impact individuals' ability to engage in religious activities.  Florida's prison ban is an example of government regulation that creates a barrier to religious practice. It doesn't just affect individual religiosity; it can also impact the broader religious marketplace by setting precedents for how religious freedom is interpreted in institutional settings.

Exactly what will be the result of the lawsuit is unclear right now, and it will take time for it to be resolved. However, in the meantime for us, this case is a good example of how religious rights are neither automatic nor given. In some cases, a group—especially a minority group—will have to pursue legal means to get the same kind of protections for their religious rights that other larger and well-known groups already have. And these legal pursuits do not always work in the minority group's favor.