Religion and Belief, Prisons/Jails - For twelve days in the fall of 2002, Nathan Clark was incarcerated in the Iron County Jail. As a devotee of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Clark had strict dietary requirements, which jail officials refused to provide to him even after he submitted a written request for an accommodation.
In March 2003, the ACLU of Utah and cooperating attorney Brian Barnard filed a lawsuit on Clark’s behalf arguing that because jail officials denied Mr. Clark his spiritually required diet and because the facility lacked policies or procedures regarding religious diets for inmates, the Iron County Jail had improperly restricted Clark’s ability to practice his religion. In January 2004, the administrators at Iron County Jail chose to change its policies, which now state that prisoners have the right to follow their prescribed religious diets.
