ACLU Sues SC Jail Over Bible Policy

Posted: 3:07 pm EDT October 6, 2010

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The American Civil Liberties Union is suing a South Carolina jail to challenge a policy barring inmates from having any reading materials except the Bible.The ACLU says in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that other religious texts and secular publications should also be allowed at the Berkeley County jail.The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of Prison Legal News, a monthly journal on prison law. The lawsuit says jail officials are violating the magazine's First and 14th Amendment rights by refusing to deliver the publication to inmates.The lawsuit asks a federal judge to order the Bible-only policy halted and to let a jury hear the case.A spokesman for Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt did not immediately return messages seeking comment.