An inmate at Colorado’s Fremont Correctional Facility inmate studies his Bible studies in his cell in 2011. (Andy Cross, Denver Post file)
Re: “How fringe faiths found their way into prisons,” Feb. 15 Perspective article.
Daniel Genis does a good job of exposing how mainstream (and non-) religions “depend on the vulnerable to grow their numbers,” but he touches only briefly on how the incarcerated abuse their religious freedom.
By his own admission, Genis did not “choose” a religion or faith because of a religious conviction, philosophical belief or moral value; rather, for his own self-centered desire to be among “educated thinkers” with whom he could relate.
I have been incarcerated since 2010, and more often than not, I’ve seen offenders use religion and the resulting opportunities for their own benefit and to manipulate the system. I have yet to see an individual on a kosher diet who’s actually a practicing Jew (kosher meals are of better quality than regular prison meals); I consistently see prisoners using their new-found faiths for sentence re-considerations and appeals; and rarely do I observe a prisoner behaving in a manner appropriate to their religion or faith when it demands personal sacrifice or offers no personal gain or incentives.
There may be fringe faiths in prisons, but from what I have observed, the majority of offenders who may embrace a religion will abuse it and are not sincere.
C. David Fisher,Ordway
This letter was published in the March 3 edition.
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