U.S. District Court: CO-PAYMENT.

Beerheide v. Suthers, 82 F.Supp.2d 1190 (D.Colo. 2000). Three state prisoners who were Orthodox Jews brought a [sections] 1983 action against state prison employees for failing to provide them with kosher meals. The district court granted a permanent injunction against a proposed prison co-payment program that would have required the prisoners to pay 25 percent of the cost of their kosher diet. The court found that the proposed co-pay policy would place an unnecessary burden on the prisoners' First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. The court held that the state prison's budgetary considerations and its goal of preventing inmate abuse of religious diets were not rationally related to the proposed co-pay program and that the Jewish inmates did not have a viable alternative for observing a kosher diet. The court concluded that the cost of providing kosher meals had a de minimis effect on the prison's food service budget. Prison officials had testified that the cost of a kosher meal is between $2.50 a nd $4.50 and that the co-pay program would have required the prisoners to pay approximately $90 per month. (Colorado Department of Corrections)