Prisoner to sue over kosher meal refusal

A JEWISH prisoner is suing the Prison Service over a claim that he was without proper meals for 19 days after he was refused kosher food — until he proved he was Jewish.

Jonathan Reuben, who is serving a two-year sentence for bank fraud at HMP Lancaster Farms, is now seeking a “judicial review” .

Writing about his experiences for Inside Time, a magazine for prisoners, Mr Reuben claimed he had been told at HMP Manchester, where he was first imprisoned that: “you cannot have kosher food until your faith has been confirmed by the rabbi”, and had to wait five days for the confirmation.

When he was moved to HMP Lancaster Farms, Lancashire, he said he was told the same thing — only this time he had to wait two weeks for a rabbi to confirm his status.

“Surely my faith should already have been marked on my paperwork as it had already been confirmed at [HMP] Manchester,” he wrote. “This, to me, is pure discrimination as only Jews and Mormons have to go through this ‘proving’ their faith before being fed a religious diet.”

Mr Reuben wrote that he still only received one kosher meal a day. “I successfully sued HMP in 2000 over the same discrimination and won £5,000 in compensation, and I shall be taking this one for judicial review”, he wrote.

He urged other Jewish prisoners to challenge the Prison Service.

A spokesperson for the service said it did not comment on individual cases, but cited the Prison Service Instruction regarding pastoral care for prisoners

The instruction says that any Jewish prisoner who satisfies the Jewish chaplain assigned to his prison, or his own rabbi, of his “sincere desire to follow the Jewish faith” is entitled to one kosher main meal a day.

A second kosher meal is available to any Jewish prisoner who satisfies the prison chaplain and governor that he cannot eat the vegetarian food provided.

A spokesperson for Prison Chaplaincy, said: “We are aware of these reports and liaising with the relevant parties.”