Conn. inmate sues to get halal meat

HARTFORD, Colo., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A Connecticut prison inmate has sued the state, claiming that his religious freedom as a Muslim has been violated by the lack of halal meat.

Ricardo Collins filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Dec. 23, The Hartford Courant reported.

"I am a American Muslim and I am being denied the halal meat for the two Islamic feast days," Collins said in his complaint. "The halal meat for the two feasts have great

'spiritual meaning' to the Muslim community all over the world."

The named defendants include Corrections Commissioner Theresa Lantz and other officials, including chaplains at the Corrigan-Radgowski correctional facility in Uncasville.

Collins was sentenced to 70 years after he was convicted of killing a man in Bridgeport in 2002. He recently won an appeal granting him a new trial.

Brian Garnett, a spokesman for the prison system, said that it meets the requirements set down by a court decision that ruled that New Jersey prisons were not required to serve halal meat, which has been slaughtered according to religious rules.