New York inmates are suing the state Department of Corrections over the decision to close prisons during next Monday’s total solar eclipse.
The case was filed in federal court in the state on Friday New York argues that the April 8 shutdown violates inmates’ constitutional rights to practice their faith by preventing them from participating in a religiously significant event.
The plaintiffs are six men of various religious backgrounds incarcerated at the Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Woodbourne. They include a Baptist, a Muslim, a Seventh Day Adventist and two practitioners of Santeria, as well as an atheist.
“A solar eclipse is a rare, natural phenomenon of great religious significance to many,” the complaint reads, noting that biblical passages describe an eclipse-like phenomenon during Jesus’ crucifixion while sacred Islamic works describe a similar event when the Prophet Muhammad’s son died. .
The celestial event, which was last visible in the US in 2017 and will not be seen again in the country until 2044, “likely gathering, celebration, worship and prayer”, the complaint states.
The lawsuit states that one of the named plaintiffs, an atheist, received special permission last month to view the eclipse with state-provided glasses, but that was before the system-wide curfew was issued.
Four of the other plaintiffs subsequently sought permission but were denied by officials who ruled that the eclipse was not listed as a holy day for their religions, the lawsuit said. The sixth inmate said he never received a response.
Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said the agency does not comment on pending litigation but considers all requests for religious accommodation. He said those related to watching the eclipse are currently being reviewed.
Daniel Martuscello III, the department’s acting commissioner, issued a memo on March 11 announcing that all state correctional facilities will operate on a holiday schedule next Monday.
That means incarcerated individuals will remain in their housing units except for emergency situations from 2 to 5 p.m., which the lawsuit says are usually the normal hours for outdoor recreation in prisons.
There will also be no visitation at nearly two dozen prisons in the path of totality next Monday, while visitation at other correctional facilities will end at 2 p.m.
Martuscello said the department will distribute solar eclipse safety glasses to staff and inmates at prisons in the path of totality so they can view the eclipse from their assigned workplace or housing units.
Communities in the western and northern parts of the state are expected to have the best views of the total eclipse, including Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Lake Placid and Plattsburgh.
The total eclipse is expected to be seen in those parts of New York around 3:15 PM ET and will last only minutes as the moon passes between Earth and the sun, temporarily blocking the sun and turning day into night.
