All he wanted to do was pray three times a day, wear his tallit and lay tefillin. But Luigi Ernesto Aiello, a prisoner at the Green Bay Correctional Institution, said that while in solitary confinement, he was denied his religious rights.
So he turned to state Jewish organizations for help. And they did.
“The Jewish Chaplaincy Program, the Wisconsin Council of Rabbis and the Wisconsin Jewish Conference continue to work together on behalf of the rights of Jewish prisoners” in Wisconsin’s correctional system, said Rabbi Leonard Lewy.
Aiello, #177826, also calls himself “Yoel ben Yosef.” According to the records furnished by the prison, he was convicted in 1987 in Kenosha county of “murder-1st degree with weapon (party to crime),” two counts of armed robbery and arson. He is serving a life sentence and is eligible for parole in 2030.
In a letter to The Chronicle dated Jan. 5, Aiello said that he had been placed in solitary confinement (“for a rule violation,” according to the prison) for eight months beginning in September 2002. During that time, “I was not allowed to use, have access to, or possess my religious garments” — tallit, tefillin or yarmulke — or have a siddur (prayer book).
After “repeated attempts” to obtain these items through the prison administration and appeals to the state Department of Corrections, Aiello filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court of the Western District of Wisconsin in March.
In the complaint, he charged that the prison administration imposed upon him “a total ban, a complete curtailment, a prolonged, long-term deprivation which has substantially (completely) burdened plaintiff’s right and ability to exercise his religious (Judaism) most basic and important tenet of praying three times a day….”
It was also around this time that Aiello contacted Lewy, director of the Jewish Chaplaincy Program, a program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation in cooperation with Jewish Family Services. In a telephone interview, Lewy said he brought Aiello’s complaint to a Wisconsin Council of Rabbis meeting in the summer or early autumn.
‘Equitable state’
Lewy acknowledged that “there was some discussion [in the council] about whether he was legitimately Jewish or not.” But as the council “does not make halachic [Jewish religious legal] decisions,” its members “decided that if this man claims Jewish identity and connection,” Lewy continued, “we would take that at face value and advocate on his behalf.”
Moreover, “we wanted to make a statement to the Department of Corrections and other prisoners,” Lewy said, “that we as a council of rabbis would advocate on behalf of the rights of inmates to have religious practices available to them.”
On behalf of the rabbis’ council, Lewy wrote an affidavit for Aiello’s lawsuit supporting Aiello’s claims that he needed the objects he wanted for Jewish religious observance. He also included information about Jewish holidays and other practices.
Aiello did not say whether that helped directly or not. But he stated in his letter that the matter was settled before going to trial.
“As a result of the agreement,” he wrote, “the [Wisconsin Department of Corrections] will now allow any Jewish prisoner (as well as other religious prisoners) to have access to their own religious garments and literature the prisoner needs in order to continue his/her daily prayers or meditations” while in solitary confinement.
Lewy said, “I feel gratified that the time I spent seems to have paid off. I think whatever we can do to make sure the state prison system understands that each individual is entitled to their own spiritual/religious identity within the confines of security needs — that is something we cannot remind them of too often.”
Lewy and others, of course, don’t just work on behalf of one among the about 20 Jewish prisoners in the Wisconsin correctional system. (The estimate comes from Jeremy Alk, executive assistant of Jewish Prisoner Services International in Seattle, Wash.)
Lewy, Rabbi Dena Feingold of Beth Hillel Temple in Kenosha and Michael Blumenfeld, executive director of the Wisconsin Jewish Conference, have participated in meetings with Dept. of Corrections Secretary Matthew Frank.
Aiello, said Blumenfeld, “is one of the fellows in prison that had problems, a more specific case of a larger problem” of religious rights in prisons.
As a result, the DOC has created a task force that includes representatives of Christian, Jewish and other religious groups. Feingold attended the last meeting of this group and Lewy plans to attend the next one in February, he said.
And Rabbi David Cohen, president of the Wisconsin Council of Rabbis, said Tuesday that one agenda item in a meeting between the council and Gov. Jim Doyle scheduled for Thursday was “to thank him for his support in bringing the rules in the prison system back to a more equitable state.”
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