Faith Behind Bars: Where Do Rights Actually Begin?

10 Nov 2025 · 1 min

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A short monologue by TJ Walker discussing conflicts between religious rights and prison rules in the U.S., using the example of a Rastafarian inmate whose dreadlocks were shaved to question whether prisons should accommodate all claimed religious practices. The speaker argues that incarceration requires following institutional rules rather than unrestricted religious exemptions.

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A Rastafarian was sent to prison. They shaved off his dreadlocks. He says, this is violating my religious rights. Okay, we got to decide as a country. Can you just say, it's my religion, I get whatever I want, or are we going to say, you're in prison now? There's a lot of inequities and problems with our legal system and our prison system in the United States. But the idea that. That you can just say, what's my religious belief? I should get away with anything. What if I said I believe in TJ Farianism and in my religion, I have to just eat caviar and steak and drink champagne all day long? Should that be respected by the prisons? I don't think so. Part of prison is you've got to live by our rules now, not by your own ideas of what the best is.