A federal judge on Monday ordered Washington state prisons to provide nighttime meals to Muslim inmates observing Ramadan, according to The Associated Press.
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit from the Muslim advocacy group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which accused the state’s corrections department of violating inmates’ constitutional rights.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of four Muslim inmates, said that the Monroe Correctional Complex’s Ramadan meal policy was insufficient. According to the lawsuit, the prison requires inmates to register by the end of January if they want to be on the list for Ramadan meals.
Some inmates observing Ramadan, including those who entered the prison after the deadline, were not being given nighttime meals. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit reportedly lost an average of 20 pounds each during Ramadan, which requires that Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.
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