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WASHINGTON—When Riley Benjamin was arrested and taken into custody at the D.C. jail a year ago, he held on to his faith.
He was classified as Jewish in the internal case management system and submitted a request for kosher meals to maintain his religious diet, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in the District.
Benjamin's request was denied repeatedly, with jail officials telling him to provide information about his rabbi and temple, or a letter of conversion, to verify his faith, according to the complaint. After at least 15 denials, he and another Jewish person detained were told the jail would bring a rabbi to "evaluate whether they were Jewish." No rabbi visited.
The federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. alleges the D.C. Department of Corrections unlawfully denied kosher meals to Benjamin and other Jews detained without proof of their religion.
The suit said the jail's external religious verification process requires a synagogue or rabbi to confirm a person's Jewish faith, or a letter of conversion, before accommodating a kosher diet. This places "an excessive and undue burden on these individuals," and prevents them from "engaging in an important component of exercising their religion," the ACLU of D.C. said in a news release.
The complaint was filed on behalf of Benjamin against two ministers at the jail, the Rev. Nicole Colbert and chaplain Jimmie Allen, and Jacqueline Williams, deputy director of education, reentry and case management for the Corrections Department. The complaint accuses them of violating the religious rights of Benjamin and other Jewish people detained under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
"My Jewish faith is one of the few things that has sustained me during this tough time in my life while I've been locked up," Benjamin said in the news release from the ACLU. "It's discriminatory and wrong for Reverend Colbert and Chaplain Allen, who are people of faith themselves, to deny me the opportunity to keep kosher by imposing proof requirements that don't apply to people of other religions."
In a statement, the Corrections Department declined to comment on open litigation but said kosher meals are provided through a food service supplier. The Office of the D.C. Attorney General declined to comment.
Efforts to reach Colbert, Allen and Williams on Thursday afternoon were unsuccessful.
Twenty-nine to 36 Jewish people "who wish to adhere to a kosher diet" are estimated to be in custody at the D.C. jail each year, according to the complaint.
"For many Jewish people, eating "kosher" or "fit" foods is both a commandment from G od and a way to feel connected to Judaism during everyday life," the complaint said.
According to the complaint, Benjamin and other Jewish individuals requesting kosher meals were not aware of any Christian or Muslim people detained having to provide external verification of their religion to receive accommodations. The class-action suit is seeking a court order to drop the requirement for Jewish people already held or soon to be in custody "as a condition for approving their kosher meal requests," according to the news release.
The suit also wants to require the Corrections Department to accommodate kosher meals to Jewish individuals "who request them based on their sincere desire to maintain kosher dietary practices as a part of the practice of their faith," the news release said. One Jewish man named in the lawsuit threatened a hunger strike and was still denied kosher meals in jail.
"Ultimately, the government can't make you prove your faith through a third party," Laura Follansbee, a legal fellow at the ACLU of D.C. and counsel for Benjamin, said in an interview. "First Amendment case law recognizes that faith is a really deeply personal issue."
Benjamin was arrested in June 2022 in the killing of 31-year-old Maurice McRae, who died months after he was shot at a Northeast Washington building in February of that year. Online court records indicate Benjamin, who has been charged with second-degree murder while armed and has pleaded not guilty, is scheduled for trial in the case next year.
Through this lawsuit, Benjamin is asking for compensation and aiming to set a precedent for the rights of Jewish people and "individuals of all faiths," the news release said. He still had not received the kosher meals as of the time of the lawsuit's filing, according to Follansbee.
"Despite Defendant's external religious verification practice and the denial of his kosher meal requests, Mr. Benjamin has remained committed to practicing his Jewish faith in the ways that he can," the lawsuit says.