THE O FFI CIAL NE WSL ET TER OF T HE SA TANIC COVEN O F THE DA RK GOA T

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incarcerated satanists

Issue #18 July, 2011

While being a tedious experience for anyone, incarceration can be especially grievous for a practicing Satanist. Although I've never had the displeasure personally, I have heard from many who have been there and experienced it first hand. Virtually every ritual tool we use, whether candles, metal chalices, swords and daggers, brass bells, bones, burning bowls, wands and so forth are strictly off limits in the usual sense. Moreover, many institutions are picky about even harmless items such as Odinist material, Tarot cards, feathers and general books on the occult. It is clear that a Satanist must be creative and adaptable if he or she is to practice their ways behind bars. The following ideas do not come from any personal experience and the author is not an attorney and therefore cannot offer legal advice. Also, I would hope that no prisoner or former incarcerated person who may read this will feel that I am in any way patronizing them. As stated at the beginning of this article, I personally have never been locked away, but I have heard and read a great deal about the matter. What follows are merely well thought out suggestions that, hopefully, may somehow help any Satanists or other oppressed religious groups behind bars.

A Bit Of Background
Rights for Satanists behind bars have been, to say the least, sketchy and ill defined. A number of years ago, I was corresponding with a LaVeyian Satanist who asked me to send him Xerox copies of the Enochian Keys. I obliged and the mail was never disturbed or disrupted. At the same time, an Oklahoma inmate I knew around the same time was denied the Satanic Bible despite numerous grievances. In the McCorkle v. Johnson case, 881 F.2d 993 (1989), the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Alabama state prison system did not violate the free exercise rights of an inmate by denying his requests for various Satanic books and other items. At the same time, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) states that prisons prohibitions on a religious context must conform to the method that.... is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest. (Reference link: http://www.onpointnews.com/NEWS/Will-Hell-Freeze-Over-if-SatanistInmate-Wins-Suit.html).