Correctional Facility Lauded for Promoting Nonviolent Diet to Inmates With a Violent Past
For Immediate Release:
February 10, 2011
Contact:
Kristin Richards 757-622-7382
Bessemer, Ala. — For including an exclusively vegetarian diet in its Vipassana meditation program for inmates, the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer will receive a Proggy Award in the category of Progressive Correctional Facility from PETA. Donaldson—which is the highest-security prison in the state and includes 24 inmates on death row and nearly 500 others serving life sentences—will receive a framed certificate and a letter of appreciation. PETA's Proggy Awards ("Proggy" is for "progress") recognize animal-friendly achievements in commerce and culture.
"Every year in the U.S., more than 10 billion animals are sentenced to death in the meat industry and suffer cruel and unusual punishment beforehand on factory farms and in slaughterhouses," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "Feeding inmates veggie burgers and bean burritos instead of meat will go a long way toward ending animal abuse, and it may very well reduce violence against other inmates and prison staff."
In her letter to the prison, Newkirk thanks Warden Gary Hetzel for his progressive action and expresses hope that the improved behavior among inmates in the program will encourage the facility to switch to all-vegan meals for the entire prison population.
Like human beings, animals have the capacity to experience fear and suffering. They also share the desire to live their lives free from pain and to avoid a violent death. PETA asserts that vegetarian meals promote nonviolence—something beneficial to all prisons.
PETA's letter to Warden Gary Hetzel is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.