By Tim Klass, JTNews Correspondent
The head of a small Seattle-based prisoner aid program, Jewish Prisoner Services International, is breathing easier — for now — following the dismissal of a long-running lawsuit.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed itself on April 15 and threw out a case brought by Dennis Florer, 45, serving time for stealing a truck at an auto dealership and using it to run down a sales representative in 2003. His record also includes multiple cases of fleeing from police and, in one instance, trying to run down a police officer in a truck with his wife and two small children as passengers in 1999. He also has a long disciplinary record in more than two decades behind bars, including at least one accusation of white supremacist activity at the prison in Clallam Bay.
In 2006 Florer accused JPSI of refusing to provide him with a Torah, Jewish calendar and other Jewish materials through the group’s chaplaincy program. His lawsuit for unspecified damages claimed that JPSI and its chairman, Gary Friedman, acted under color of state law because Friedman was a chaplain under the group’s contract with the prison system.
In 2007 Judge Ricardo S. Martinez dismissed the lawsuit, but a three-judge appeals panel ruled last year that Florer’s accusations might have merit and remanded the matter to Martinez for a closer look. Martinez again rejected Florer’s claims, citing the standard set in an 8th Circuit appeals case, and this time the 9th Circuit panel agreed.
“This is the first time in a decade, I think, that we haven’t had some lawsuit pending against us,” Friedman said.
Overall, Friedman said, the group typically aids about 40 local, state and federal inmates and their families in Washington State at any given time, including readjustment assistance to convicts who have served their time.
The annual budget of the group, founded as a part of B’nai B’rith International, has shrunk from $250,000 in 1997 under BBI to $155,000 five years ago to $70,000 last year, Friedman said.
“We are probably the least popular cause in Judaism,” he said.
Nonetheless, the Florer case has drawn widespread attention among those concerned with all types of religious services for prison inmates, said Friedman, who has also served as communications director of the American Correctional Chaplains Association for the past 14 years.
“Across the country, this is going to benefit chaplaincy programs,” he said. “They’re not going to have to worry about being sued as agents of the state or of the government.”
If the latest decision is appealed to the Supreme Court and accepted for review, “there will be amicus [friend-of-the-court] briefs from all over the country” supporting JPSI’s position, Friedman said.
Florer has been given 90 days to appeal. As of press time, no appeal had been filed.
Florer’s legal team withdrew after the ruling in April, said Ian Cairns, one of the University of Washington law students who had argued before the appellate panel in Florer’s defense, and Leonard J. Feldman, an attorney who helped supervise the students.
“We thought we had gone as far with the case as we could,” said Cairns, now an attorney in Seattle. Neither he nor Feldman would elaborate.
Cairns and Feldman said they were disappointed by the 9th Circuit panel’s reversal but questioned whether the case would have wide significance.
“This case is largely decided on the facts,” rather than on the question of whether an unpaid volunteer chaplain should generally be considered a state agent, Feldman said.
Friedman, who spoke with Florer three times by telephone, said the inmate was not Jewish by any denomination’s standard — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or Reconstructionist — because he did not have a Jewish mother, evidence of conversion or any pre-prison history of Jewish belief or practice.
“Nobody becomes Jewish [solely] by self-declaration. That’s according to all of the major denominations,” Friedman said.
Under state law, however, inmates need only express a “sincerely held belief” to qualify for special religious treatment, such as kosher meals, but chaplains such as Friedman may decide which inmates may participate in liturgically related activities.
Florer claimed to be an Orthodox Jew and was given kosher food but also complained about that at one point because he did not receive baklava. Friedman said that in response to his other demands, Florer eventually was provided with a Hebrew-English edition of the Hebrew Bible, a Jewish calendar and other materials.
As of mid-June, Friedman said, 654 Washington state prison inmates claimed to be Orthodox Jewish and were receiving kosher meals. Of those, he estimated one to two dozen are Jewish by any denominational definition.
Inmates seeking to be considered Jewish often claim to be Orthodox to distinguish themselves from Christians who call themselves Messianic Jews, Friedman said. He added that the main attraction of kosher fare appears to be a rampant inmate belief that regular prison meals are subject to contamination by negligence or malice, such as spitting in the food by kitchen workers.