WILLIAMS v. HARRY

Up until 2023, the DOC had a longstanding practice of accommodating Muslim, Jewish, and Native American religious celebrations by allowing incarcerated participants to purchase foods for religious ceremonial meals. These foods were ordered and prepared by DOC kitchen staff, with some items being paid for by the incarcerated population, and included halal meat for Eid celebrations, venison for a Native American Harvest meal, and kosher honey cakes for Rosh Hashanah. In 2023, the DOC terminated this religious accommodation. It replaced it with a policy that required religious celebrants to choose a meal from the DOC’s regular weekly menu for their holiday meal. This menu didn’t include halal meat or other religiously meaningful foods.  

In February 2023, Craig Williams, a Muslim person incarcerated at SCI Albion, filed a lawsuit and request for preliminary injunction challenging the policy change. As Mr. Williams wrote in his lawsuit, “the [new] policy dictates the way the Institution believes the Muslim should celebrate their feast, not the way the Muslims are accustomed to.” PILP then entered the case and helped Mr. Williams obtain a preliminary injunction, a court order requiring the DOC to allow the Muslim community at SCI Albion to continue to observe the Eid holidays as they had prior to the policy change. PILP litigated Mr. Williams’ claims under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and the First Amendment.  

In January 2025, Mr. Williams reached an agreement with the DOC that will result in a statewide policy change that allows all qualifying faith groups to purchase three fully prepared food items from an outside caterer to accompany their choice of meal from the DOC’s regular monthly menu for two religious celebratory meals per year. PILP is delighted with this outcome, as this is in many ways more favorable to incarcerated people than the original policy. The policy change will permit incarcerated people to meaningfully observe their religion by having access to essential religious meal accommodations for future religious holidays.

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