Following on the heels of that thread regarding the Scottish rapist who reverted to Islam. Some very interesting comments:
Islam on the Inside, The Advocate, Emily Kern, 10 November 2003
For Nathaniel Green, his first day of fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan was easier than he expected. About 75 inmates at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, along with millions around the world, began the fast the evening of Oct. 26.
During the ninth month of the lunar calendar, followers of the Islamic religion abstain from food and drink, including water, from sunrise to sunset. They also monitor their thoughts and words and abstain from sexual contact during the daylight hours.
“The food part was easy,” Green said. “It was the part of becoming one with myself, trying not to indulge in certain conversations and looking at females a certain way that proved challenging.”
Green, 18, an inmate at Hunt, said he was introduced to Islam on the streets by a friend. He became more involved in the religion once incarcerated, he said.
Islam is the religion preached by the prophet Muhammad in the seventh century. Muhammad’s message was that there is only one God and that he, Muhammad, was God’s messenger. Followers of the religion are called Muslims. Muslims believe Muhammad was the last of the prophets, and that Jesus and the prophets from the Old Testament were his predecessors.
This is Green’s first time observing the fast, he said. He was arrested in connection with the death of a Broadmoor High School student in 2001 and sentenced to 10 years for conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
On the first day of fasting at Hunt, the mood quickly changes as a multitiered cart is rolled into Hunt’s education building and the inmates realize their dinner has arrived. The scene will repeat itself for the next month, with the men eating their morning meal at about 5:30 a.m., working through the day, and gathering in a small room to break their fast at about 5:30 p.m.
“On the streets, you have access to everything,” Green said. "In here, you have guidelines and rules to abide by. It makes it easier."
At least 575 Muslim inmates in the state prison system are participating in Ramadan this year, according to figures provided by Melissa Callahan, a state Office of Corrections spokeswoman. Representatives from nine of the state’s 11 adult, men’s prisons responded to a request for information regarding their Muslim inmate populations.
The largest Muslim population is found at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, which has 500 Muslim inmates, but only 150 are participating in Ramadan. Callahan said the prison officials indicated they plan to prepare early meals for inmates observing the fast, as well as allow inmates to break their fast together in the evenings during the month. The prisons also plan to allow Islamic inmates to celebrate the feast of Eid al Fitr at the end of Ramadan on Nov. 25, Callahan said.
Hunt spokeswoman Angela Whittaker said the number of Muslim prisoners participating in Ramadan at Hunt has grown from 44 in 1999 to 74 in 2003. The prison first allowed Muslim inmates to organize a “Students of Islam” club in 1998, she said.
Hunt is a maximum security facility off of La. 30, about 15 miles south of Baton Rouge in St. Gabriel. It has a general population of about 1,600 and serves as reception center for inmates in south Louisiana entering the state prison system. It offers Impact, a 200-bed program for first- or second-offense non-violent offenders with short sentences. It also has a special unit for prisoners with mental-health conditions, Whittaker said.
Unlike Green, Johnny Southhall is accustomed to fasting. This year marks his 13th or 14th fast, he said. Southhall said he was introduced to Islam in 1975 when he was living in his hometown, Chicago. That introduction was “through the wrong doors,” through the Nation of Islam, Southhall said. “They had a concept that the white man was the devil,” Southhall said.
Southhall said his first arrest came when he moved from Chicago to Louisiana. Southhall, 46, entered Hunt in 1982 and served 10 years of a sentence for first-degree robbery, Whittaker said. He was released in February 1992 but was incarcerated again in August 1993 for armed robbery. He spent time at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola and at Allen Correctional Center in Kinder before being transferred back to Hunt in 2001.
For his second offense, Southhall was sentenced as a habitual offender – to 40 years. He becomes eligible for parole in 2013, Whittaker said. “I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be locked up, so I had an attitude,” Southhall said. He said his relationship with inmates practicing a militant version of Islam was reinforced.
After being released from his first sentence, Southhall moved back to Chicago but quickly returned to Louisiana, he said. After his second lock-up, Southhall said he started reading the Koran, and learned of the close relationship between Islam, Christianity and Judaism.
Southhall said he threw out his earlier teachings and learned to stop focusing on gender and color. He said he encourages other inmates to read the Koran for themselves and study the religion.
Hunt Warden C.M. Lensing said he was conservative at first about allowing inmates to practice Islam because of the religion’s reputation. Muslim inmate religious programs inside prisons at the national level have had considerable problems, Lensing said. Some programs become racially biased and prisoners have caused disturbances, he said.
“We were very suspicious because of the past history – the radicalism of the so-called black Muslims,” Lensing said.