CAIR, CAIR-Georgia Attorneys to Seek TRO in Dekalb Co. Jail Religious Accommodations Suit
(WASHINGTON, D.C. 8/22/2023) – This morning, attorneys with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, along with CAIR-Georgia, will argue for a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction in the Northern District of Georgia case, Simmonds v. Maddox (22-cv-1479) seeking religious accommodations in Dekalb County Jail.
The hearing will take place virtually on Tuesday, August 22, at 10 a.m. before Judge Victoria M. Calvert.
SEE: Public Access to Electronic Court Proceedings
https://www.gand.uscourts.gov/public-access-electronic-court-proceedings
BACKGROUNDER:
Norman Simmonds is a pre-trial detainee at Dekalb County Jail where he has been held since September 1, 2021, without conviction. For nearly two years, Simmonds has been deprived of halal meals—or even adequate nutrition, largely subsisting on 1,000 calories or less per day. Defendants have continually refused any accommodation of his religious diet requests, forcing him onto a vegetarian diet that does not fulfill his religious or nutritional requirements. Simmonds daily must choose: remain faithful to his religious beliefs and starve, or abandon his principles and eat.
Dekalb County Jail also denies Simmonds and other Muslim detainees the ability to make their five daily prayers on time, and to know when to start and stop their fasts during Ramadan, by prohibiting 24-hour access to clocks. The only source of time in the housing units is a single kiosk which Simmonds and other detainees cannot see while locked in their cells 18 hours per day. Defendants have continually and inexplicably refused any accommodation, including hanging clocks visible from inside the cells, or providing access to low-cost watches or personal timepieces on the commissary as do jails and prisons all over the country.
The District Court will hear arguments about whether a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction forcing defendants to provide certified kosher meat meals and 24-hour access to the time may be ordered.
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CONTACT: CAIR-GA Interim Executive Director Azka Mahmood, azkatmahmood@cair.com, 678-653-5822; CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com, CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com