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TCI inmate accuses state of religious discrimination
VINDICATOR EXCLUSIVE
By Justin Wier
YOUNGSTOWN
A man held in Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg filed a complaint in federal court claiming he’s been denied the right to exercise his Rastafarian faith.
Thursday’s filing lists five occasions on which employees of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction held down Cecil Koger, 35, and force-cut his dreadlocks. On the most recent occasion, Koger was pepper-sprayed when he refused to leave his cell, the complaint said.
Koger has been in prison since 2000 when he was convicted of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery.
“It was worse than being spit on,” Koger said in a statement. “The Christians have their thing. The Muslim inmates have theirs. I just want to practice like everyone else.”
The complaint claims the DRC did not provide Koger with religious texts or accommodate his diet, despite making similar accommodations to inmates of other faiths.
Ohio prison policy bans dreadlocks and lacks a faith-specific policy for Rastafarians.
Further, a TCI warden issued a memo on dreadlocks in 2014, stating in bold type, “There are no religious exemptions for this hairstyle,” the complaint says.
At least 39 jurisdictions nationwide, including the federal Bureau of Prisons, either allow inmates to maintain dreadlocks or allow Rastafarian inmates the ability to apply for religious accommodations, the complaint says.
The Ohio DRC recognizes nine faiths: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Wiccan, Native American and Asatru – a modern revival of ancient Norse paganism associated with white supremacy.
The Asatru policy accommodates religious property including Gandr staffs, Thor’s hammer medallions and personal mead horns. It was added after a 2005 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rastafarianism is an Abrahamic religion that began in Jamaica in the 1920s. It’s most popular public adherent was the late reggae musician Bob Marley.
The ODRC’s religious services administrator denied several requests for accommodation.
Avidan Cover, a Case Western Reserve University law professor, filed the complaint along with Punam Chatterjee, Anthony Cirranello Jr. and Tianjiao Han, who are student legal interns at Case Western’s Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic Center.
“Ohio is woefully out of step when it comes to respecting prison inmates’ religious freedom as guaranteed by federal law,” Cover said.
The complaint claims that since TCI and the state corrections department receive federal funds, the organizations are violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which prohibits state and local institutions from placing arbitrary or unnecessary restrictions on religious practices. It also alleges violations of the First and 14th amendments.
The complaint asks the court to rule that the Ohio DRC’s grooming policy violates federal law and to prohibit it from forcing Koger to cut his dreadlocks.
It also asks the court to order the department to create a policy for Rastafarian inmates that would allow Koger and other Rastafarians to observe a pork-free diet, wear a head covering and access religious texts.