Protective Custody or Christianity

It's a tough choice for Arizona's inmates

Phoenix Jewish News/June 17, 1983
By Joseph Stocker

The reason: They're afraid of being attacked and possibly killed by a racist gang known as the Aryan Brotherhood.

The state officially acknowledges that the situation exists. It says many more blacks and Hispanics than Jews are in protective custody to shield them from the anti-black, anti-Hispanic, anti-Semitic brotherhood.

About 150 inmates in all are in protective custody, says John Turner, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. How many are Jewish is uncertain, since some won't admit it. One inmate who is himself in protective custody (we'll call him Mr. X to protect his identity) estimates there are 35 men "with Jewish backgrounds" at Florence. Of these, he says, 19 or 20 are in the "main yard" (the area within walls), an of those 19 or 20 nearly all are in protective custody.

Another Jewish inmate (Mr. Y) told the PHOENIX JEWISH NEWS that members of the Aryan Brotherhood are "Hell's Angel types" who fancy themselves as Nazis and plainly and simply want Jews "wiped out." Some on them wear swastika tattoos.

"Jew's aren't people (in their eyes)," says Mr. Y. "Jews are mongrel dogs. They don't want the name mentioned in the yard. They don't want people who are Jews."

Mr. Y. says he is one of only a few prisoners - perhaps no more than four - who remain in the yard, eschewing protective custody while allowing it to be known that they are Jews. He thinks he's pretty much let alone because, in two separate instances of physical conflict with Brotherhood members, he utilized martial skills gained in the military to fight off attackers.

Also, he says, he and another Jewish inmate remaining in the yard are "jailhouse Lawyers" who will help inmates with legal procedures.

"Those inmates don't want someone else messing around with us," he says.

Nevertheless - and despite our pledge to protect his identity - Mr. Y. says the mere fact of his allowing himself to be interviewed puts him at risk.

"This is the way it is," he says. "I'm in danger. There's no overlooking that. Everybody in this yard by now knows that I'm in here speaking to somebody…(But) I have never been one to sit back when my right to speak is being withheld, though it may mean that I'll have to go back out there in the yard and fight it out and possibly get killed."

Another Jewish inmate, Mr. X, couldn't be interviewed, since it is DOC policy not to permit interviews with inmates in protective custody. His statements, which follow, were contained in a letter to Rick Alan Ross, Jewish representative on the DOC's religious committee. Ross is carrying on what amounts to a one-man crusade to help Jewish inmates. He released Mr. X's letter to the PJN, Mr. X having made it clear therein that he meant it to be a public communication "to make the Jewish community aware of the problems that face Jewish men in prison."

(The PJN is withholding not only the names of Mr. X and Mr. Y, but also details of their crimes, sentences, physical appearances, and so forth to conceal their identities to the extent possible.)

Protective custody, wrote Mr. X is a "nightmare existence" that involves spending 20 of every 24 hours in one's cell, away from the main yard where Aryan Brotherhood can attack.

Mr. X said there are "all kinds" of Christian religious programs but "no Jewish activities of any kind and never have been any for men in protective custody." Jews go to Christian services just to escape the "extreme boredom…and many convert to Christianity even through the conversion may be false," he said.

"Believe me, for a Jew in here to go to a Christian church service isn't something that is thought of as wrong," he continued. "It is an extra couple of hours out of (the) 5' x 9' cell you are forced to call home."

Turner essentially confirms Mr. X's report, although he says the proportion of the day spent in confinement is something less than 20 hours.

"They do go out for recreation, exercise and the theater," he says. "But they are in isolation from the general population because we have reason to believe their lives and safety are endangered."

Mr. Y says he had his first run in with the Aryan Brotherhood when he'd been at the prison only a week. He was playing in a jazz group with two blacks and a Hispanic - "having some fun."

"I was approached by some A.B.'s and told I shouldn't be hanging around with blacks," he recounts. "They didn't know I was Jewish yet. They said the only thing 'that's saving your ass right now is the fact that you're white.'

"The next time, about a week later, they found out I was Jewish. They threatened to kill me. There were two of them. I started to leave, and one of them made a move to grab me. I used what skill I had, and the two I was confronting were out of the fight quickly. A third one came along, and I told him, 'Look, you want to go, too? You guys threatened to kill me. If you're going to kill me, don't threaten - just go ahead. Because I won't threaten you. I'll just do it.'"

Mr. Y says his second fist fight with members of the Aryan Brotherhood occurred in the industrial area and was a minor skirmish.

Although there have been no recent physical attacks on him, Mr. Y says he still is the butt of catcalls, including, "kike" and "dirty Jew." Once, he says, someone called him a "hamantaschen," apparently thinking that was a dirty word.

Mr. Y says the authorities can't protect Jews in the yard against the Aryan Brotherhood - only Jewish inmates can do it for themselves.

"We learned that in Israel and Europe, didn't we?" he asks. "If we haven't learned anything from all that, we're going to be a lost people again. I mean, these are Nazis. They're not a reasonable political group that we can sit down and talk with. And I'm not going to deal with Nazis. I'm going to deal with a person whose only thought is how he can kill me."

Mr. Y says empathetically, "I'm not some kind of macho guy."

" Please don't let me come off like I'm some real brave guy who gets into fights all the time," he continues, "I never fought in my life before I came here."

All the parties involved in this report - the two anonymous inmates, Ross and the state's DOC's spokesman, Turner - are critical of the organized Jewish communities of Arizona for their lack of support of Jewish convicts. They say that, except for an occasional visit by a rabbi, there is no systematic effort to meet the religious needs of Jews in prison.

Ross spends much of his time, at considerable personal expense, serving Jewish inmates. With assistance from rabbis and friends, he put together Passover packages - matzos, copies of the Haggadah - for inmates during the recent holidays.

He is 30, a longtime Phoenician and graduate of a local high school. He has worked as a loan officer for a Phoenix bank and was in the salvage business. He got involved in Jewish communal work, and more specifically, the fight against proselytizing, he says, when a Christian missionary "infiltrated" the Kivel Nursing Home and "harassed" his grandmother.

Ross wants the Jewish community of the state - including that of Tucson - to take a stand against both the persecution and the proselytizing of Jewish inmates. He says Christian fundamentalist ministers work zealously to convert Jews in the institutions.

He cites the media announcement by Joyce Lukezie, convicted Phoenix murderer, that she converted from Judaism to Christianity, explaining that a rabbi "visited one once and then he forgot about me." Meanwhile, "there were other religious groups" meeting regularly and she got involved with them at the Maricopa county jail.

Ross says he subsequently visited Lukezie, talked to the rabbi in question and was told that he tried three different times to see her but found her tied up in conferences with a doctor and her lawyer. Ross reports Lukezie told him in their conversation that she recanted her conversion and returned to Judaism.

Lukezie was convicted in the deaths of her husband's business partner and his mother-in-law and has been granted a new trial but denied bail pending the trial.

Turner, supporting Ross' complaint of Jewish communal neglect of Jews in the penal institutions, says Ross is "filling a vacuum."

"Frankly," the DOC spokesman asserts, "we have not had good support from the Jewish community to the degree that we have had from, say, the Protestants and Catholics. If there is a rabbi willing to go into our system and meet the needs of Jewish inmates, we would welcome it."

Turner does acknowledge that the proportion of Jews in the correctional system is small (the total population is more than 6,000). "The Jewish communities may be saying, 'Well, we only have 30 or 35 people in the institutions and they're scattered around the state,' and so perhaps the Jewish communities don't have the resources to devote to what is relatively small group," says Turner.

As for proselytizing, the DOC spokesman says there is no way for the correctional system to keep Christian evangelists from talking to Jews. And some Jewish inmates "have converted out of convenience."

"It's a way of dealing with a situation that is difficult for them," he says.

Moreover, contends Turner, "there are games that inmates play."

"Some will convert from one religion to another because one religion offers more goodies," he says. "The inmate attitude is 'Well, here's a good deal. I don't need to be a Protestant - maybe I should be a Catholic or whatever.' It's manipulative. Some will think it will improve their lot in life."

Mr. X, in his letter to Ross, said, "What with no Jewish services and the Jewish men attending Christian services all the time, I'm sure you can see how many (most) come to convert to one form of Christianity or another. Now even if these conversions are false (which they are in many cases), it is still a shame and a disgrace. Why do I say this? Because these conversions came out primarily due to neglect on the part of the Jewish community to provide proper Jewish teachings and services."

Mr. Y joining the others in a plea for an organized Jewish undertaking at Florence, says that "we're not asking for a lot."

"A rabbi every now and then…some books…some Hebrew courses," he suggests. "I feel a need to get back to basics with my Judaism. I feel a great need for prayer. I feel a great need for going inside myself and finding out more of what is a Jew. What is it that I'm fighting for? We want Jewish education. We need somebody - not even a rabbi - who is knowledgeable about our religion, to come in and teach us. We need to have some holidays…prayers…songs. How about some music books? We get to hear Baptist hymns day in and day out."

Mr. X demands vehemently to know whether the Jewish community wants to prevent conversions and win back some already converted.

"Well, if either of those things is wanted," he wrote to Ross, "then some kinds of programs, teachings, books and materials, services, visiting, counseling, etc., must be provided…If nothing is to be done for those men who have already turned to Christianity (due to neglect of the Jewish community), then I pray that something sound will be done for those few men who still try and retain some semblance of Jewishness in this living hell."

Would an organized, visible Jewish presence at the prison subject Jewish inmates to even greater peril than they are already experiencing? Initially, yes, perhaps, says Mr. Y.

"Once we start having Jewish services, we're all identified," he concedes. "But that should be the Jews' choice. They should have the opportunity. They know the danger and are aware of the problem."

Also, says Mr. Y, Jewish inmates "would come out of the woodwork."

"A Jew is a proud person - proud of what he is. I haven't met a Jew yet who wouldn't say he's proud to be a Jew."

Then, "if we can just get some security and get the programs going and then keep them going for a little while, it will settle in," says Mr. Y. "You know time cures all. Even the AB's will realize after six months that the Jews are here to stay…that they can't just keep going on killing people."

Ross would go so far as to have the shofar blown in the yard at the outset of the high holidays in the fall. Told of this suggestion, Mr. Y grins and says, "Love it!"