Eclipse is a once in a life sentence event: inmates
Faith-based case vs. NY jail: Let us view, too
It’s a total eclipse of their rights.
Six inmates at a New York prison are so eager to catch next week’s solar eclipse that they’re suing their lockup, claiming the rare spectacle is a “religious event” that they should be allowed to see.
The prisoners at Woodbourne Correctional Facility argue the April 8 phenomenon — in which the moon will pass between the sun and the Earth, immersing part of the state in darkness in the middle of the afternoon -should “warrant gathering, celebration, worship and prayer,” their federal lawsuit states.
The men include a Baptist, a Muslim, a Seventh-Day Adventist, two practitioners of Santeria and even one atheist — who have all “expressed a sincerely held religious belief that April’s solar eclipse is a religious event that they must witness and reflect on to observe their faiths,” according to the suit filed Friday.
But state correction officials have planned a lockdown during the astronomical marvel, in a move that would breach the inmates’ constitutional rights to practice their religions, the suit alleges.
From Bible to Koran
The suit notes that an eclipselike phenomenon is described in the Bible during Christ’s crucifixion and that Islam depicts a similar event coinciding with the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s son.
“As people with different beliefs come together to observe the eclipse, an incredible phenomenon that holds religious significance for many, we simply ask that [prison officials] allow our clients their Constitutional right to practice their faith,” Sharon Steinerman, a senior associate at white-shoe law firm Alston & Bird, which is repping the prisoners pro bono, told The Post Tuesday.
The lawyers filing the suit are seeking to make it a class action so that impacted inmates at other prisons across the state can join the legal battle.
They are seeking a court order forcing the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to allow inmates to witness the event.
State officials declared last month that they would have a system-wide lockdown during the eclipse, and that visitors will be prohibited from visiting inmates at prisons in the path of totality — when much of upstate is expected to be snarled by traffic.
The atheist plaintiff maintains that he received special permission to view the eclipse with state-provided protective glasses before the lockdown was announced.
Holy-day exemption
Four other plaintiffs said the state denied their request to get a religious exemption because officials said the occasion was not considered a holy day in their religions. The remaining plaintiff said the state ignored his request.
DOCCS spokesperson Thomas Mailey said the state takes all requests for religious accommodations under consideration and the eclipse-related requests were under review.
Daniel Martuscello III, the department’s acting commissioner, said solar-eclipse safety glasses will be given to staff and inmates who can view the astronomical event — which isn’t expected to happen again until 2044 — from their work or housing units.
There would be no outdoor recreational activities permitted between 2 and 5 p.m. during the period when the moon will eclipse the sun, sending much of the state into complete darkness for several minutes around 3:15 p.m.